xenia died suddenly

[mac77]

My xenia was doing fine, it was spreading, until one day it shrank and turn dark brown. I dont know why, all the water parameters are fine. The tank is very mature.
Any body that could help me to find out what happen I would apreciate.
The tank is 75 gallons, I have 260 watts for light. I bough this tank already mature, it was an only fish tank before.

[Matt Rogers]

Xenia has a rep for doing that. Some say when iodine levels drop way below .06 (natural level in the ocean) it can wipe them out. Water changes may help or carefully dose iodine - too much is bad for a lot of things - it's a good way to molt shrimp prematurely for instance.

There are different types of xenia too. Some are hardy as hell and will thrive in water with high nitrates and others are kind of a 'canary in a coalmine' and will die with small fluxuations in water chemistry.

I had a nice patch going for a while and then I opened up my old I.V. doser too much and dumped kalk paste right on them. Smooth move. Over a period of days they became stark white and looked stiff. Then faded away.

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[Birdlady]

Hi Mac...

I had the same thing happen to me. I got a tiny little frag, that grew into a huge colony. I was getting ready to frag for the LFS, then it just started shrinking and sloughing apart. Never did find out why. Some said it was due to my running carbon on the tank. But others run carbon with no ill effects. Xenia is a mysterious critter!

Sorry for your loss! :'(

The same thing happend to my anathelia, it was doing great then all of a sudden the colony died which makes no sense since all the other corals in my tank were fine.

[OoNickoC]

Originally Posted by Matt Rogers

There are different types of xenia too. Some are hardy as hell and will thrive in water with high nitrates and others are kind of a 'canary in a coalmine'
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Very well said....I've found the common pom pom variant to be the hardiest....and blue pulsing the least. With the eleangota inbetween. I only did 1/4 the recomended dosage in my cube and my colony overtook the tank! It fuels and unamed fish store "long handed" and "pom pom" xenia factory to this day.....Aftoer oodle of research i come to the conclusion that there is none. A sever lack of info (officail/aceppted by the mAsses) on captive care other than personal experience and assumtions.

[Gresham]

I've found carbon and xeniads don't mix all that well.

Xenia in particular, is very sensitive to higher temps. I've been told that it's a cue in nature to cull the large colonies as to not allow it to take over (as it can do).