Trimming xenia...toxic?

palmer

palmer

Member
I have a colony of Xenia in my tank that I have to trim back about every 6 weeks. Does anyone know if this causes the xenia to release a toxic substance that may be the reason why my zo's won't open? But then again, I've been doing that for about a year and the zo's stopped opening about 3 months ago...I may have just answered my question...if a Flame or Pygmy Angel keeps the zo's cut back then that should cause a toxic release and everyone would have trouble with zo's niot opening. But, trimming is more of a 'threat' to the xenia so more of a toxin shold be released if any and my flame doesn't bother the xenia at all....I should have taken up wood carving.
 
palmer

palmer

Member
Yes I have a skimmer...but it only runs at night from about 7pm to 7am. I know what your thinking. Let it constantly run for a few days after trimming them...I'll do it.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Yeah.. dunno why you only run it part of the day...
In a perfect world you should make your clippings/cuttings/frags outside of the aquarium... you'll still end up with nasty slime from the xenia getting into the tank.. but it'll be far less if you cut them outside of your main tank.
 
palmer

palmer

Member
To trim the xenia would mean removing the piece of live rock that it is growing on every six weeks or so. Don't want to do that. The skimmer runs at night because I add supplements during the day and don't want the skimmer to remove the calcium, strontium, magnesium...or will the skimmer not remove supplements. At least I was told that the skimmer removes supplements. Am I wrong??? My guess is yes.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Well.. to me a protein skimmer removes far worse junk than good. Regular water changes can re-balance the "good" stuff so I skim 24/7
 
goulding.c

goulding.c

Member
I need help with one of my zenias they recently started to divide by attaching to another rock once they detached the little shriveld up and died now on bottom of tank. The bigger one is shriveld up to the size of a marbel now for 3 days. The other 2 huge ones are fine right next to him. Any ideas, should I wait and see, add water flow, I hate to loose them they are my best corals.
CG
 
escape2thewater

escape2thewater

Active Member
I remove many zenias from my tank every month & its never casued any porblems for me. I just rip them off the rocks & glass then scrub whats left off with a toothbrush. I wouldnt think cutting them would hurt anything.
Escape
:happyfish
 
sweetdawn

sweetdawn

Active Member
there is a parasite that will only affect zoos the zoos will not open if the parasite is in your tank. try doing a fresh water dip on the rock the zoos are on and see if anything comes out
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
You guys know that xenia ships very poorly, thus most local fish stores buy frags...or at least trade for them, right?
 
goulding.c

goulding.c

Member
I bought mine from lfs that didn't know they had it. It was behind a rock had 2 fans size of eraser for 10 bucks. Now I have 3 as big as baseballs and more little ones showing up elsewhere from that little one.
CG
 
escape2thewater

escape2thewater

Active Member
Originally Posted by mudplayerx
You guys know that xenia ships very poorly, thus most local fish stores buy frags...or at least trade for them, right?
Ha! I'll have to start trading mine in to my lfs instead of throwing them in the trash! Ive done it before but thought they were doing me a favor, now I know the truth! Thanks Mud!
Escape
:happyfish
 
troyrb

troyrb

Member
Trust me it is possible for them to release toxins in to your tank. Two weeks ago I got sick of xenia taking over my tank. I went in with my metal glass scraper and scraped them all off the rock. Some of them tore and I didn't really think anything of it at the time. The next day my yellow tang was dead and some of my corals looked like they would die.
It struck me as odd because it seemed to only effect the tang and certain corals. My hair mushrooms were the most effected. I thought for sure I would loose them. They stated turning inside out and releasing there guts. My frogspawn also seemed to loose it's bight green color for a couple days after. Three days later and many water changes and everything seems back to normal. The only casualty was the yellow tang and all the corals recovered.
I think it was because I removed so many of them all at once. I think if you only had a couple to remove at a time you would be safe but I would definitely be careful.
Persoanly I would never buy a Xenia ever again. They are nice looking corals but unless you want a Xenia only tank I would stay clear of them. They spead like wildfire and some times smother all other corals in your reef.
 
goulding.c

goulding.c

Member
Help my zenias are moving and strating to shrivel. The only thing I have done differant in the last week is start adding a alk booster to get from 2.5 meq/litre to 4 I am at 3 right now sal is 1.028 no amonia trites trates ph 8.2 All other corals look great. Lights are 3 250 watt mh 4 96 watt pcs 125 gallon tank. The zenias have looked the best for ever since I bought a dime size frag and they grew to 3 big ones. The last 2 weeks they started to reattach and move upward but as soon as they let go they shrivel up and one loks almost dead.

CG
 
goulding.c

goulding.c

Member
Can they get to hot? That is the only thing I changed in the last 2 weeks when this started I raised the heaters to 82 so it wouldn;t flucuate down to 76-82 all the time with the lights.
CG
 
ross

ross

Active Member
No, xenia does not release toxins into your tank when it is cut, at least not enought to ever be noticable in any way. 82 is not too hot for xenia, anywhere up to 86 or so is fine.
The snail to watch out for is called a pyramidia snail and it eats zoos. HTH
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
I have about 15 xenias in my tank and one of them is darker than the rest and limp/shriveled. This occasionally happens with them for some reason. I propagate them and every once in awhile I get one that just croaks.
However, I would quit dosing buffers and do some water changes instead...and keep them regular. Then start dosing kalkwasser. Also, a fluctuation in temperature of 76-82 is pretty stressful for everything in the tank. Oceans are enormous and the areas where corals grow are almost constant in respect of temperature.
 
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