Pulsing Xenia Question

About 3 weeks ago or so I purchased a pusling (pom pom) xenia frag. It's been doing fine up until two days ago. The polyps sill extend, retract and pulse but the base of the stalk started to lean to one side and every now and then almost seems to fall over. The stalk doesnt seem to be as thick as it was when I first got it, but I have noticed several new polyps starting to grow. Could this be the corals way of wanting to move towards better light or water flow? Or is it possible its coming time for my lamps to be changed? I currently have a 36 gal tank with one 65 Watt Dual Actinic Lamp (460nm/420nm) and one 65 Watt Dual Daylight Lamp (10,000K/6700K). The frag is towards the upper middle of the tank, and I'm hoping its not a lighting issue. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

There are also zoa polyps, green star polyps, a toadstool leather and hammer corals in the tank. But the hammer corals are no where near it.

 

Xenia likes a lot of light, but will survive in lower light. I've noticed that Xenia in lower light areas of tanks I've had in the past will grow longer and thinner than those colonies under strong light. I believe it's their way of getting closer to the light - effectively extending past whatever is blocking the light. I would think that your lighting is probably a little on the light side for Xenia to really shine. I had a lot of Xenia near the top of my tank under 250W halides and it pulsed and grew like crazy. I had to pull about 1/2 a gallon worth every month to stop it from taking over my tank.

I would move it as close to the lights as possible.

 

Sounds like it is looking for more light. Xenia will move to a new location if it needs more light. Since you are seeing new polyps I wouldn't worry. Funny thing is I a Nano Cube that I hardly did anything with it, not even fed it(there nothing that needed feeding) and Xenia grew crazy. So I wanted see how it would grow in my main display tank and it would just slowly disappear. Sure that might be someone with better information on Xenia.

 

Agreed i have xenia ' and i made some plastic shelfs to hold it near the top of the tank , and it sits "directly" under a 400 watt 10 k bulb and at "high noon" all 3/400 halides are hitting the whole tank.
also its sitting roughly 3 inches below water line.

Xenia loves the light' , and it loves indirect water flow... try moving it up and put some flow near' but NOT directly on it

Not to even mention the fact' it's already "split" and now i have 2 large pieses of it'.. put some rock near it' if you can'.
it'll actuly move to it and split' .
lots of light though !

 

I've read that if you want to try keep it from taking over the tank, put it on an island rock. If it starts to reach out for another rock trim that off. and place it on another island.

 

In my tank it has released polyps that started another colony in another area.

 

I found the easiest way to control it intead of cutting it. Is to grab it with your fingers at the base of a stalk while under water and gently but steady pull upwards slowly and it will just release leaving nothing behind to sprout. I usually leave a couple of small stalks on the rock and within a month they spread and fill the whole rock up again but this method works well I easily eradicated it from the surounding rocks. But cover your nose when throwing it away ..man it stinks

 

yeah, I put mine on an island kind of, and put flat rocks around it, when they fill with xenia I trade those rocks in for a coral and some more rocks. But in a new tank, xenia can be rather moody and shrivel and expand.

 

Same here. Had a tiny fray that I let heal and recover shipping. When I went to glue it on it's own rock today I saw a few polyps growing on a rock a few inches away.