Best way to propagate Xenia?

[mortimersnerd]

All,

I'm looking to thin out my Xenia colonies a little bit, and need to know the best way. I've been told I can simply use a razor blade to cut them just above the rock, then use cyanoacrylate to glue them to a small chunk of LR. Is this accurate? Alternative suggestions?

Thanks,
Justin Collins

 

[wnfaknd]

cut em up using a razor or scissors, and rubberband them to a rock, it will stick to the rock in about 48 hours, you can then remove the rubberband.

 

[slojmn1]

I use the above method, wedgin rocks all around the base and in between the colonies. in a week or two the xenia crawls onto the rock and ataches. I then pull the rock away and the xenia splits off and you have a new rock of xenia to trade with someone or turn into your lfs for credit or cash. My lfs even gives me rubble rock fromt he botom of their live rock bin every few months and this is what I use to put around the xenia. i then give the xenia to my lfs for store credit, they in turn sell it for the usual markup. But it works out for me, once in a while they have a nice coral or something exotic and by then I have enough store credit to make it less of an OUCH price wise.

 

[fishfarmer]

I like rubberbands. This is what I do, cut a double stalked piece of xenia, lay that on your rock and rubberband the two stalks apart. Within week the xenia will be attached and should be split by the rubberband making two colonies. Sometimes xenia will grow over the rubber bands making it hard to unwrap, just cut the rubber band near the colony it should slide right out.

 

[Grandczar]

Use a small rock and wedge it at base side of xenia... It will climb onto the higher rock within a week or two. The rock it use to grow on will continue to grow it.
No cutting involved...

 

[davelin315]

Put it in your tank at the bottom. You'll be horrified after a month at how it overgrew everything.

I don't try and propagate mine anymore, I just leave it for a few weeks, and then reach in and yank it apart. If I can't get a good hold to rip it off, I use scissors or a razor blade, but I prefer to rip it off, because it hopefully won't leave any flesh behind to grow. I used to rubberband it, now I just drop it to the bottom, and it attaches itself within a couple of hours, a day at the most.