xeina bad shape

My Xeina Tree - 20 Gallon

Here are some pictures of my favorite Xeina which under goes Pruning every now and then. Before and After!

 

Xenia are usually show stress easily, but are very hardy, make sure everything is good and I wouldn't worry about it too much

 

had the same prob, add iodine like coralreefer said it helps xenia also like water temp around 78 is best, this also maybe a sign its time to add some buffer

 

Xenia & Mushroom Coral Tips & Tricks

There is something about xenias and mushrooms that I love the most, more than any other corals in the ocean. Maybe it’s because I find them the easiest of the soft corals to grow and they get along really well with each other. Xenias prefer the strong wavy currents and bright lighting, typically attributed to the top section of the aquarium while mushrooms prefer the slow moving currents and low lighting normally present at the bottom of the aquarium.

In my opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than seeing these two types of soft corals living in perfect harmony with a kaleidoscope of colors coming from the mushrooms intermixed with the pulsating and waving action of the xenias, all viewed with a backdrop of beautiful pink and purple coralline algae. The sight and tranquility of these live underwater paintings is viewed with much awe as the work of famous but past artists.

I’ve gotten pretty good at working with these two types of soft corals. At times it seems they can pretty much speak to me through their actions. I can tell when a xenia colony is not comfortable or when a mushroom is not feeling well. This ability did not come over night, it took many years of observation, testing and experimenting to pretty much read what they were telling me today. Much of my trial and errors came from hobbyist that sent me in a multitude of directions, some good and some bad but all helped in assisting me to find what will work and what won’t. Here is a little bit of information as to what really works for me.

Whenever you do something wrong, never give up and think it’s the end of the world. There is always a second chance if you take the time to observe your aquarium closely. My second chance is always get ready to do a quick water change. It’s incredible how a water change can make a really big difference. However, a water change should not be done just because things aren’t going right at the moment. A water change should be a constant maintenance issue. Routine water changes will remove quite a number of unwanted things from your aquarium that can build up over a period of time. Also, I have used both saltwater mixes as well as natural ocean water for my water changes and both seem to work fine. If there was any difference between the natural ocean water and the saltwater mixes in regards to my xenias and mushrooms, I never noticed any difference except that since I live on an island called Jamaica, the natural ocean water is free and the saltwater mixes are not. Since I’m a strong advocate on protein skimming, I’ve noticed that the natural ocean water will make my skimmer a bit busy for the day and after that it’s back to normal. I believe this is attributed to the live microorganisms present in natural ocean water that the skimmer is removing. Also, if you are going to use natural ocean water, I suggest you run a UV Sterilizer for a while if you have fish present in your aquarium. Natural ocean water will have a couple of parasites present that may infect your aquarium fish. However to date, I’ve only had one small outbreak of ick that didn’t last very long thanks to my UV sterilizer. So the only real difference between ocean water and the mix was the impact on my wallet.

In reference to xenias, I find that xenias prefer to be located at the top of the aquarium where they can have access to strong lighting and water currents. I also find that they prefer water currents to be alternating rather than linear. If you bombard your xenias with strong water current coming from a specific direction only, the stalk of the colony will not expand very much. In my observations, I noticed that the stalk remains short and stout and there is little growth in terms of the colony expanding. If the current is too weak, the xenias do not tend to grow additional stalks as quick as they would with alternate but strong currents. One thing I did observe is that the extension of the polyps grew longer with weaker currents.

Xenias don’t do too well with high temperatures, I normally find that my xenias as well as my mushrooms do exceptionally well at temperatures between 80F – 82F. When the temperature of water gets too cold such as in the 76F – 77F the colony does not expand, as it normally does at my 80 – 82F range. I believe this maybe the optimal temperature where enzymes within the xenia colonies are reproducing cells at their maximum rate. Temperatures above 84F, usually makes my xenias become stressed out and they begin to lose their polyps or become jelly like or shriveled in appearance.

Xenias prefer moderate to bright lighting. Under very intense metal halides, I find xenias to shrink in size and they usually don’t grow too close to the surface of the water. I noticed that they tend to grow closer to the edge of the aquarium where the light is less intense, considering that most hobbyist tend to center their metal halide light fixture to the top center of the aquarium. On the other hand it could be possible that my test aquarium had the metal halide lighting a bit too close to the water surface and the stray heat or excessive UV light may have caused them to grow towards the edge of my aquarium instead. Currently I use power compacts or T5 lights to grow xenias, simply because metal halides cost too much in terms of energy consumption and I do not prefer an aquarium deeper than arms length. Anything deeper tends to be a bit uncomfortable and tedious for me to arrange the rockwork. Also, the use of metal halides tends to make my waving hand xenias a deep brown color. I suspect this deep pigmentation is a natural defense mechanism to combat the intense UV from the metal halides. On the other hand I find that the metal halides normally make my mushroom corals lay flat against the rockwork and do not open as wide as I’d like them to. I believe that if my aquarium was a bit deeper, the metal halides would do perfectly and I’d get many different shades of xenias and mushrooms at different depths. However, since the conservation of electricity is the most important thing to my wallet, my T5 and/or power compacts will have to do.

Waving hand xenias do like to have their hair cut every now and then. Usually when I leave my xenias to grow without pruning them, I find that they usually don’t grow or spread out as much as I’d like them to. Maybe it’s because I prefer my xenias to be more open and wavy instead of crowded into a large ball which looks like weeds growing in the tank. Normally when I see too many new stalks appearing, I’d cut one of the stalks at the base and place it on a small piece of rock anchored by a rubber band and some bridal veil. (“You can also cut this single stalk into several smaller stalks but I would not recommend cutting them into too many small pieces. Make sure that each cut have a couple of polyps attached to the central stalk”). This seems to allow the xenias to slowly attach to the rock work without drifting away with the water current. After a few days, two to three days to be exact, I’d gently lift the small piece of rock and remove the rubber band and bridal veil. Sometimes a couple of the polyps would get stuck between the holes in the bridal veil and tear away. This is nothing to be alarmed about considering that when xenias attach themselves to a piece of substrate, they usually never ever come off so easily. The small polyp that may be torn away during removal of the bridal veil is minimal and they would normally grow back quite quickly.

Cont --> Part 1 of 2

 

Xenia & Mushroom Coral Tips & Trick Contd --> Part 2 of 2

Right after I make my cuttings and replace them in the tank, I would dose a bit of SeaChem Reef plus into the water. I find that this helps the new cuttings and the mother colony to heal much faster. I would normally place my xenia cuttings closer to the mother colony and slowly move them away from the colony as each day goes by. On the third day, I’d usually use a drop of coral fix super glue gel to glue the small rock work with the newly attached cuttings to my main rock work. After a few days the new cuttings will start to sprout a new stalk and will begin to spread out over the balance of the main rock work. This usually works with pom-pom and waving hand xenias, however I find that the pom-pom xenias are a bit more temperamental in regards to the waving hand xenias. If you don’t have SeaChem Reef Plus you can use a bit of Kent Marine Tech-I but use it in very small doses. Mushrooms can be propagated in very much the same way except you should cut the mushrooms in pizza shapes and place them under the bridal veil in very much the same way. Allow the mushroom cuttings a bit longer to attach to the substrate than you would with the xenias. Mushrooms do not require bright lights so it would be best to place your cuttings at the very bottom of the aquarium.

 

Xenia & Mushroom Coral Tips & Tricks Part 3

Also, it is always recommended to keep your tank pH at that of natural ocean water. Approximately 8.1 min to 8.4 max. I’ve noticed that xenias as well as mushrooms do not enjoy rapid swings in the pH department so if you are going to adjust the pH parameters of your water, I’d do it in very small increments so as to not over shoot your marker. I find the best time to increase my pH is during the night cycle of the tank when all the lights are off for a good period of time and everyone in the tank is pretty much asleep. Since xenias as well as mushrooms are really not particular about nitrates, however lower nitrate readings are always a positive and it won’t promote hair algae or the other forms of algae to take over the tank. One thing to be aware of is red slime algae, this guy can really do a number on your xenia and mushroom colonies. It normally covers your mushrooms and the bubbles trapped under the slime can cause your mushrooms to really disappear quite fast in addition to that, the slime usually breaks off and attaches itself to the polyps of the xenias and it’s like chewing gum in your hair. When this happens, the polyps of the xenias are pretty much stuck together and they tend to shrivel up into a fist. I find that strong water currents and activated carbon does a good job at keeping this at bay.

 

Xenia & Mushroom Corals Tip & Tricks Part 4

Here is a list of fish and inverst that I currently have in my 20-Gallon mushroom and xenia aquarium.

Common True Clownfish called Coral
Royal Gramma called Granny
Redfin Flasher Wrasse called Snapper
Yellowhead Jawfish called Dobbie
Bi-Color Angelfish called Blondie
Two Emerald Crabs called Popeye & Hercules

All of these fish and inverts seem to get along really well together except the bi-color angel that loves to nip the polops off of my xenias. I know I should’nt say this but she makes me so angry that everytime I see her nip a polops off, I want to drop kick her back to the ocean. She really doesn’t eat the polops, I believe the constant waving and pulsing is far too tempting for her to resist. The only reason why I’ve put up with this angelfish is that my xenias are growing so fast that her constant nipping doesn’t seem to slow down their growth.

If you’re going to keep fish with your xenia corals and your patience is limited to the size of your aquarium, I would recommend that you stay away from fish in the category of angels and tangs. Although tangs are herberviours and do an excellent job of reducing algae, they do have the tendency to nip or graze on everything in your aquarium including your xenias. I’ve tried the yellow tang as well as the regal tang and they both found pleasure in nipping at my xenias. To control algae, I normally use a bit more algae grazing snails instead. Another problem but easily solved is my yellowhead jawfish tends to cover any mushroom that shows up near her burrows. In my small 20-gallon nano reef tank, Dobbie has two prime real estate that she constantly keeps in immaculate condition by tossing sand over and onto any mushrooms that take residence beside her burrows. On several occasions I’ve had to root up mushrooms that were completely covered by her burrowing. I’ve found that using a bit of reef epoxy and fastening a small slope of polished rock above her burrows will stop her from burying the mushrooms that fasten above or around her. When she tosses the substrate onto the polished rocks, the substrate usually slides right back down into her home so the only alternative that she has is to actually carry it further out into the opening to discard of it. If someone came and wanted my bi-color angelfish and my clownfish, I’d gladly part with them. Not that my clownfish has given me any problems but the less fish in the aquarium would help in reducing the amount of nutrients. Since my soft corals come first, I’d rather have less fish anyday.

In closing, I find that all of the above seems to work with my xenias and I’ve been cutting and pruning xenias from a single colony that was given to me by a very good friend. The mother colony is still growing strong with over 80 plus cuttings that I’ve already given away or experimented with. I’ve even started mixing pink with brown and yellow waving hand xenias to see if I’d get a different color xenia someday. So far I’ve only gotten colonies of pink, brown and yellow xenias in a mixed batch. I’ll keep experimenting to see what comes up in the future. Have fun and good luck!