xenia not doing well

[Nautilus1]

Ive had xenia for a long time and it grew like a weed. I moved my tank and everything was fine. My tank is 13 gallong with DSB and 96 watt compact.
About 2 weeks ago i changed the PC bulb (Current 50/50) that was about 9 months old and replaced it with a catalina compact 50/50. About 10 days ago the xenia shriveled up and looked as if it was going to die. I did massive water changes 4 days ago and i can now see individual polyps but they have not opened up and the base looks as if it is trying to dettach from the rock. I have another xenia in a more shade loction that is doing the same thing. I have frogspawn, ricordia, zooanthids, yeelow polysps GSP all doing fine. Is it the new bulb? Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

Probably not the bulb. Xenia is frinky like that, unfortunately.

 

[bleedingthought]

My xenia is doing the same thing. It's not shriveled up. It is stretched out during the day but the polyps have not opened since I bought it 4 days ago. One of the stalks seems to be "peeling" off the rock, and it could be that I just hadn't noticed when I bought but it also could have started doing that today. Is it still too early? Is it just getting adjusted? It is getting good flow and no one's picking at it. The same rock came with some mushrooms and they're doing good. My kenya tree and my zoas are also doing great. My ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all at zero. Temp's at 80 degrees and ph is at 8.2. The xenia/mushroom rock was drip acclimated for 2 hours. Anything I should try or that could be wrong? :?

 

[bleedingthought]

Can someone help out?

 

[Chubosco]

I can only speak for the thick stalk pulsating xenia. When I have a piece like what you are describing, I put the piece about 3 inches below the surface of the tank. Nice bright light (not haligen) and a some water movement and they become happier than hell. If you wish to keep the same piece over a long period of time (they grow quite large) you must occasionally cut about a quarter of the head off about a forth of an inch down the stalk. You can attach this to a rock to form another. If you don't do this it will drape itself over the rocks and slowly die leaving several babies in it's wake. Xenia is really tempermental and it will sometimes prefer to die; if unhappy, like they become depressed or something. For others, it grows out of control. It is really wierd stuff. I'm sure science could explain it better but no one has seemed to figure it out yet.

 

[Chubosco]

One other thing I should mention. If you have a piece that is growing well and at the bottom of the tank, it will climb up the rock to the top of the tank (over time) and leave little pieces of it's foot behind that will form babies. I try to keep it at the top so it doesn't grow out of control.

 

[Nautilus1]

Can someone help out?

I think its a bit too early for you to get worried. My xenia took about a week before really opening up and growing like a weeed. It was out of control to the point i would smother it with rocks and it would grow thru the cracks. Now its just hanging on and peeling off with the polyps just looking like stubs. All i did was change the bulI also have not changed the water for about 1 month but that was never a problem before. Since then i have done many water changes but to to no avail.

 

[bleedingthought]

Thanks guys! I'll give it time then. I did move it 3/4 of the way up in the tank. I've heard that they're temperamental. The one thing that really worried me was the peeling from the rock. Is there something I can do to help with that?

 

[Newportreefer]

I have pom pon zenia and it grows like a weed, for sur'. If I cut single polyps off and place them in holes in the reef soon I have a colony. It seems to love a strong current, good alkalinity and iodine supplementation. I just cut back my major colony, completely decapitating it. Already you can see new polyps developing.
If you would like see see some of my Zenia go to http://wwwmynewportreef.blogspot.com/

 

[Anonymous]

My xenia is doing the same thing. It's not shriveled up. It is stretched out during the day but the polyps have not opened since I bought it 4 days ago. One of the stalks seems to be "peeling" off the rock, and it could be that I just hadn't noticed when I bought but it also could have started doing that today. Is it still too early? Is it just getting adjusted? It is getting good flow and no one's picking at it. The same rock came with some mushrooms and they're doing good. My kenya tree and my zoas are also doing great. My ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all at zero. Temp's at 80 degrees and ph is at 8.2. The xenia/mushroom rock was drip acclimated for 2 hours. Anything I should try or that could be wrong? :?

IME They don't like alot of flow. I had to move mine out for them to pulsate. It takes about 1-2 weeks to adjust to your tank and start to grow LOTS of polyps everywhere.

 

[bleedingthought]

It might be hard to get a lot of light to them but not too much flow, since every the lowest amount of flow in my tank is under/around the rocks and that's obviously where the least light is also.

Right now, it's about 10 inches away from my bulbs (3/4 of the way up in my tank). It's getting a good amount of flow there, though.

Still no polyps.

 

[Anonymous]

Try using one or more of rocks to stack around the xenia (except front display of course) to block the flow and still have the light.

 

[bleedingthought]

I'll try that! Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

you're welcome!