pulsing xenia vanishing

[reefkeeper_2006]

Got a problem with my pulsing xenia...Its Been growing well since i introduced
it.
The problem is that i keep losing more of it every night...
All water params are fine all other corals are doing fine
Cant see it just dying off....thinking something may be eating it

are there any fish /critters/pests that eat it
has anyone else experienced this?
Any Ideas????

[SCOOB]

do you have any angels?

[Philfish]

Have you got a cowrie or Urchin? Sometimes they will eat Xenia?

Can't think what else would eat it at night to be honest.

[SCOOB]

the same thing that's eating your polyps phil :D

[cajen]

I have 2 kinds of xenia, red sea and elongatus. I couldn't work out why, after flourishing for ages, the rs stuff suddenly started disappearing, while the e. was growing like the clappers. Then I saw a crab I didn't know I had flash into a crevice clutching a piece of the red sea xenia. Can't ID the crab as it moved so fast and I haven't seen it since. Maybe you've got the same.

[reefkeeper_2006]

thanks for the replys

i have got a coral beauty...cant see it being that though
would have thought if it was going to eat the xenia it would eat it during
daylight hours and not just at night..could be wrong though....

other fish are yellow tang, green chromis,scooter blenny,maroon clown and bangai cardinal.

over stocked i know....looking for a larger aquarium as we speak
3x2x2 would be nice:)

i have not got any cowrie or Urchin`s in the tank...only a couple of red leg hermits a halloween crab and a blue star fish

i did put a pepermint shrimp into the tank..not seen him since putting it in so not sure if its still alive or not...apatasia still going strong...would a pepermint eat zenia?

i have heard a clicking noise in the tank as well...but once again not seen anything.

might have a go at setting the video camera up and filming through the night
see if i can spot it that way.

thanks again all

[Silverreef]

Hi reefkeeper_2006,

Exenia requires Iodine to flourish, what are the Iodine readings in your tank?.

Regards

Steve

[weely5]

I wish something would come along and wipe out my xenia- its stragulating everything!!!

[reefkeeper_2006]

never checked my iodine readings...everything seems to grow well so i presume the levels are ok....always thought partial regular water changes in theory should replace the lost trace elements...

maybe thats where im going wrong?
still new ish to this reef stuff

[SCOOB]

i always found that if a tank gets over 28 degrees, xenia tends to fold. certainly seems to flourish the cooler end of the spectrum, 25/26. in my old tank the xenia was a better thermometer than the thermometer.

[dan-the-man]

Agree with Scoob's post, stability of temp is a major factor ime.

It only grows in my sump though due to the cherub angel tending to leave it for a week or so then noticing it and devouring it within a day or two. :o

[ezzkazz]

I have a gold banded maroon clown which bites chunks out of xenia if hes not well fed. Hes a pain in the rear end

[mshague]

my peppermint shrimps loved mine ripped it to bits in days ..

[Clarkii]

Silvereef, do you have any information to support

Exenia requires Iodine to flourish, what are the Iodine readings in your tank?.

I don't believe Iodine has much bearing on Xenia flourishing, pulsing, just interested on any information you had on it ?

I cant get rid of the Xenia in my tank, I hate it, I am running a long battle which I think I am going to lose, I pull it out, take the rocks out and carefully remove what I can then chip the rock away with it on, two weeks and its back again everywhere. I have it on the Rocks, growing on other algae, my bubble algae's is covered and some of these balls are around golf ball size. The glass, the sand , the magnet cleaner which I took out cleaned and left in RO water for several days. I put it back in and a couple of weeks later it has Xenia growing on it, there is a snail walking around with it on its shell, I hate the damn stuff :)

I bought a nano tank and stuck some rock from the main tank, a little sand, made up some new water in a few hours chucked it in with a heater and couple of small pumps and ripped some Xenia out the main tank and just dropped it in the nano and shock and behold a few weeks later its started covering everything in there. The temp swings quite a bit at the moment in the nano and its still flourishing so I'm beat, if anyone has anything that will eat it send it my way
I seem to have a strain which just can not be killed off no matter how heard I try. I am trying to resist the blow torch approach as the LR has so many other corals on it :(


Sorry to hijack :( just wanted to share my pain :(

Thanks

Ali

[hydno]

i lost a lot of xenia a while back in a similar fashion. after weeks of late nights watching the tank after "lights out" i found the culprit , it was a smallish polychaete worm about 8 inches long happily munching on a clump.
rock was extracted following day and the worm was "terminated";)
usually sump stuff like that but it had to pay.:mad:

[Silverreef]

Hi Ali,

I used to run my tank without doing water changes, all I did was top up with fresh RO, drip Kalk and use calcium chloride for Ca, I noticed over time that the pulse stopped pulsing and stopped flourishing, bearing in mind the whole of my back glass on 4 foot by eighteen tank was covered in it.

Then I started to dose Iodine ( lugols solution ) on a regular basis (I found the Salifert test kit a pain to use), but the pulse picked up and flourished once again, the lugols then ran out and I forgot to re-new it, the pulse once again died back, this was not a scientific experiment, just my observations.

The best way I found to remove it is to put bits of tile over it, let it grow on it then remove, or get some surgeons clamps/fishermans disgorgers with serated jaws, clamp then on and peel it off, you will need to be persistent, or alternitevly stop doing water changes, once the pulse has used up the "Iodine levels"?? in your tank it will start to die back.

Regards

Steve