Xenia died

4933 Views 10 Replies 10 Participants Last post by mikeMersot, Aug 26, 2003

foobuddha

Discussion Starter · Aug 25, 2003

4.5 months ago I added a xenia frag, it _was_ two small stalks. It had grown and now sported 7 stalks and seemed to be doing what xenia does best. Friday evening, my wife said it looked funny. One of the smaller stalks had retracted and looked somewhat gray. Saturday morning, it seemed like it had come back, but by Saturday evening the grayness and retracting polyps had spread to most of the other stalks. By Sunday afternoon, it was pretty clear that it wasn't one hurting unit. Today, all stalks are limp and retracted and gray. It looks like someone took a blowtorch to a plastic xenia frag

.

Everything else in the tank seems to be doing great. Water params are normal (8.08 ph at night, 1.023 sg, I haven't checked alkalinity or calcium yet, ammonia, trites 0, trates < 5ppm).

Only thing that gets added to the tank is B-ionic everyother day, and top off water (RO/DI from the grocery store).

It seemed strange that it went so fast and hadn't exhibited any signs of stress prior.

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Mrs Smith

· #2 · Aug 25, 2003

Xenia is weird like that. Did the tips come off? I have heard that occasionally it will do that to auto-propagate. Mine melted once as the first indicator of an impending crash. (Which most likely isn't what's going on.)

Any chance that something brushed up against them? I have a huge colt that does that to neighboring xenia.

I'd just keep an eye on your parameters and think about ripping out the dead xenia. (beware the stench.)

Danielle

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laddy00

· #3 · Aug 25, 2003

You didn't say anything about your temperature. Xenia are naturally controlled in the wild, one way by high temperatures in the summer. If you are running a hot tank during the day it could be the cause

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Prismaco

· #4 · Aug 25, 2003

Sad to hear, I just got a frag for my mom yesterday. Hope it will spread good, get a frag from that...

-Paul

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Toadfish

· #5 · Aug 25, 2003

That sux man...I have seen xenia "meltdown" and the heads eventually come back. It's tough to say though.

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bamann345

· #6 · Aug 25, 2003

my nano got to 90 once and the xenia just melted making the room the tank was in foul!

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Casey

· #7 · Aug 25, 2003

thats just what that stuff does

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foobuddha

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 25, 2003

Casey said:
thats just what that stuff does

That's exactly why I'm not sweating it out in regards to everything else in the tank. Also, this was a frag of a frag of a frag...I would have felt much worse if it was a collected coral.

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MontanaRocknReefer

· #9 · Aug 26, 2003

Xiena is a "no no" in my tank! Never good keep it alive!!

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CAT

· #10 · Aug 26, 2003

I've had the same experience as you. Bought a couple of Red Sea stalks at my reef club that spread to about 8 pieces then suddenly started dying back. I saved one stalk and put it in my fuge. It started spreading again, but very slowly. I've got a frag back in my tank now, to 'test the waters'...

Waiting to see how they do.

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mikeMersot

· #11 · Aug 26, 2003

I had a similar experience recenlty as well, I had a frag which grew extremely quickly in my tank for about a year, finally sprouting about 80-90 stalks and covering an entire half of my 75 gallon tank. I was fragging it like crazy trying to control it and then all of a sudden about 2 weeks ago it all died in about 72 hours. Everything else was ok once I painstakingly stripped the acres of xenia off the LR. I don't think I will mess with the stuff again; it is beautiful and easy to propagate, but is a hassle and can be unpredictable.

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