xenia after 2 weeks

[byrself]

pics of my pulsing xenia colony after a little over 2 weeks in my tank, one stalk is about to be completely attached to a new rock, then i'm gonna move the frag rock. these things are growing much better than i had expected. i noticed the one stalk had already started to attach to the new rock after only a couple days. it's still got one small piece left to detach from the frag rock. enjoy!
2 days old..

2 weeks old..

 

[kuyales]

i was wondering if there was another way to put your pics up?? all i get are boxes with a red x in the middle of it....is there another format you could use or another web page you could put it on?? just curious....i really want to see your pics...but no go....=(

 

[kuyales]

nevermind...they came up....i think i just timed out cuz it took too long to load....thanx...sorry about that

 

[jumpfrog]

byrself: lookin' good. Xenia's seem to grow so fast and their constant movement is inspiring. Yours look very healthy!

 

[byrself]

thanks guys, pulsing xenias have always been a favorite of mine, and i wasn't ever able to find any locally after my tank finally got to the point of being ready for corals. my roomate picked these up for me out of new orleans. he tried some in his tank a long time ago, and that's when i first fell in love with them and that's kinda what made me take interest in reef tanks altogether. now, i finally got my trophy piece =) next, i will try my luck at fragging these...=)
"making dreams come true... one coral at a time"

 

[kris walker]

Yea, I agree. They are some of the healthiest looking ones I've ever seen. Great job!
kris

 

[irishstout]

Looks great. I need to come by and see them in person. Let me know when those frags are ready! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />

 

[maury]

byrself, let the Xenia frag itself for ya! Just put a few pieces of loose rubble/small LR around the base of the colony, and it will send off shoots to it as it grows. When you have anew Xenia growing by itself on the rock, move it to where you want! I have a LOAD of them growing in my 55, and just brought onje colony home to the 210. We'll see how long it takes to take over THAT tank!

 

[reeferkeeper]

I had to laugh...I went to a LFS in Lansing and they tried to sell me a piece of pulsing Xenia about the size of a quarter for $60! I just laughed at him and left without buying anything. This guy knew that I had some money and drove almost 3 hours to get there, he must of figured I didnt know anything. Well he now knows that he wont be getting my money, especially since most people that have them are willing to GIVE them away.
Oh Yeah byrself...looks good

 

[kens]

how do you use a rubber band? do you tie it around the base of the xenia then wrap around the rock. or do you take the band over the stalk and through one of the branches?
just wondering

 

[byrself]

thanks for the tips guys, i'm already noticing that mine are getting closer and closer to the surface of the water....pretty soon, i may have a 6 pages post on "help, my xenia is growing too big for my tank" (HAHA FOR THOSE WHO KNOW =)
seriously, i think maybe going with the natural splitting idea will be better for me than to cut it up. i'm still kinda scared to do that, thinking i will end up killing it or something. that's why i haven't cut my colt coral yet. as fast as these i have are growing and spreading on their own, i really don't see a need to cut them. i'd like to get them growing on the glass, hell, i wouldn't mind having a xenia tank if it comes down to it =) grow away, i don't mind =)
hey ken, i think as long as you get the xenia secured to the rock long enough to have it attach on it's own, it doesn't really matter how you do it. i've been told i could also stick a toothpick through the base, and tie the toothpick to the rock, for easy removal later. you could also glue them. i'm convinced though that letting them do it on their own is the best way, just takes a few extra days....i got all the time i need, no rush.. =)

 

[memnoch]

Pumping Xenia kick booty, they are the whole reason i wanted to do a reef. I got into this thinking FO which quickly evolved into FOWLR. Then i found a LFS that had an awesome reef setup in his shop. The pumping xenia is about 12" in diameter and 12" tall. It was like it was waving just for me saying "buy me buy me buy me you gotta have me." So that very day i started thinking reef. Now $300 later i'm ready ;-) I first purchased a Caulestrea which is quite beautiful and the LFS said it would tolerate the nearly certain algae bloom after adding 130watts of PCs. I can't wait to get those xenia ;-) What is a good price for them? I hate being a sucker but when i see something i want i gotta have it and it's written all over my face

 

[byrself]

believe it or not, the frag piece i got cost me 20 bucks. you can't beat that with a baseball bat! another store around here locally would have charged over 50 bucks for it.
that's cool though, i hope these split off enough to give to that lfs that charges so much. just wait till i tell them how much i want for mine..hehe.. <img src="graemlins//evilwhorn.gif" border="0" alt="[Evil Horn]" />

 

[kris walker]

IMO, natural fragging is not always the best way to go for xenia. For one, you can't get rocks up to their level when they climb the glass. Secondly, xenia do not always like the spot they are climbing to, and often they will just stop moving and sit attached to both rocks. So you may start off thinking you will only be waiting a few days or so, and end up waiting a month or two for nothing.
I just did my 4th batch of clippings with sharp kitchen scissors (wife didn't like that one ), and IMO they are so robust you don't really need to worry about them dieing if you use a rubberband as suggested to hold them to a rock (just wrap the rubberband around the rock and xenia--don't worry, you can't really hurt those guys, or at least it doesn't seem to hurt them since they start pumping again only an hour or two after they are clipped and moved).
Cheers,
kris