[CallMeIshmael]

So i bought a small Xenia tree and it has two stems on it. So ive been really excited and ive had it for about 3 weeks and it looks nothing like the Xenia's that i see at all my LFS's. At the stores they are all flowing and opening and closing, it's just hypnotizing. And then mine just has long arms and just keeps it's hands open and then around 8:30 - 9:00 it just sucks in and goes to sleep. i was wondering if it is just to early, or if im not doing something right. I also have a Kenya tree and it has doubled in size since i've got it. i use and eye dropper to feed them both Kent's Marine ZooPlex once a week.
Advice will help.
Thanks.

[m2434]

What do you have for lighting? What are the tank and what depth is the coral placed at? Also, when do the lights come on? Seems like it is getting photo-saturated maybe. I haven't kept xenia in many years though.

[Jumper]

Originally Posted by m2434

What do you have for lighting? What are the tank and what depth is the coral placed at? Also, when do the lights come on? Seems like it is getting photo-saturated maybe. I haven't kept xenia in many years though.

photo saturated? Never heard of that, but then again I don't have much experience with corals. I would think to put the xenia to the lowest place in your tank; maybe you didn't light acclimate correctly? Also, I assume you have the correct lighting requirements?

[nicodim55]

How much flow is it getting? sometime they don't like a lot of flow on them. maybe moving it to a calmer section of your tank?

[johnmaloney]

make sure your salinity isnt too low. xenia doesnt like salinity on the lower end...what is your tank at?

[paint4food]

somebody fragged me off a piece and its open and stringy for three weeks, although it did attach to nearby rocks, i do have lots of flow in the tank but my salinity is 1.026 is there something else i should check for

[pink4miss]

my xenia just crashed . looks like i will loss it all. i had had it in my 6 gallon over 8 months ago. moved it to this tank.six months ago, it thrived spread like crazy. was looking sooooo pretty. than bam! crash. left a big empty spot were it was. there is on small sprig left.
only difference i can think of is i had a heater go bad. and temps were up and down by 5 degrees. one minute cold next warm.
i did notice after the crash my calcium was low 320. not sure if the crash caused that? or it caused the crash?
i can say when i was using kalk i seen the xenia take off. so i think cal. plays a part in its happiness.
a friend who uses purple up has awesome xenia. never a crash in her tank. purple up is calcium based i believe.

[m2434]

Originally Posted by pink4miss

my xenia just crashed . looks like i will loss it all. i had had it in my 6 gallon over 8 months ago. moved it to this tank.six months ago, it thrived spread like crazy. was looking sooooo pretty. than bam! crash. left a big empty spot were it was. there is on small sprig left.
only difference i can think of is i had a heater go bad. and temps were up and down by 5 degrees. one minute cold next warm.
i did notice after the crash my calcium was low 320. not sure if the crash caused that? or it caused the crash?
i can say when i was using kalk i seen the xenia take off. so i think cal. plays a part in its happiness.
a friend who uses purple up has awesome xenia. never a crash in her tank. purple up is calcium based i believe.

Sorry to hear that. Xenia are know for just crashing out, they did in my tank many years ago. The 5 deg swing shouldn't hurt it, reefs actually commonly swing much more than that very quickly, 15 degrees or so even. I guess if it's acclimated to stability maybe. However, more often crashing xenia is just a sign of good water quality it seems. that would be my guess if everything else is doing well. Seems to need more nutrients than other corals. I've even seen people try to use in in a refugium in place of macro algae LOL.

For CallMeIshmael I suspect photosaturation because of the consistent timing. This is pretty common actually. IMO, we've gone a bit light crazy and actually, our light can put out a lot more par than what is found on most reefs. Although photo-saturation occurs in nature as well.

Edit: sorry said photosaturation above, meant photoinhibition...

[pink4miss]

Originally Posted by m2434

Sorry to hear that. Xenia are know for just crashing out, they did in my tank many years ago. The 5 deg swing shouldn't hurt it, reefs actually commonly swing much more than that very quickly, 15 degrees or so even. I guess if it's acclimated to stability maybe. However, more often crashing xenia is just a sign of good water quality it seems. that would be my guess if everything else is doing well. Seems to need more nutrients than other corals. I've even seen people try to use in in a refugium in place of macro algae LOL.

i know its not known why xenia just crash. but do you think the crash could cause my calcium level to drop? i would say the xenias were one third of the corals in my tank, it was taking off ...i had a lot!

[Nvizn]

Post a photo. It sounds like Anthelia to me.