xenia meltdown help???

the claw

the claw

Active Member
Attached is a photo of a newly aquired Jakarta Xenia. There were several colonies on the frag, and one of them is melting. A couple of the others don't look that hot. The coral was purchased Sunday and put into the tank. It didn't look the best for the first 24 hours. It then fell into some shrooms and I think got nuked a little. I put them where they are at now, yesterday, and 24 hours there is obviuos meltdown. I'm not sure what to do. At this point my water parameters are fine. I am concerned about what the colony will do to those parameters if it continues to die. I have the option to cut the dieing colony fromthe frag base. I could leave them all. I know there is cases where the xenia dies, but the colony regrows similiar to aiptasia or shroom. Any advice from the experts. (Thats you)
P L E A S E H E L P !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:confused:
 
attml

attml

Active Member
Check your salinity. Sometimes if the salinity is low (less than 1.024) I have heard of several cases of Xenia melting down (even without the run in with another coral) when all other levels are fine except low salinity.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
I'm no expert but what I would do is move them into a good current put them high toward the light and hope for the best
From what I understand Xenia's can melt down for no apparent reason and once it starts its hard to revers
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Looking at the base stalks it looks like it was trying to attach itself to something else and has been scraped or cut off at those points, this may be the source of the stress itself if it was a recent purchase. did it look good at the store or where ever you got it from?
Could be a water quality issue
Could also be acclimation issue.
Thomas
 
the claw

the claw

Active Member
You might be onto something Thomas. It was attached to the lfs stores tank I think. I remember him saying something when he was getting it. He had a pile of frags that were growing together. I got a sweet deal for the multiple stocks, but maybe it wasn't that great ($15). It seemed ok when I got home, but has been declining. The sg in my tank is 1.0245, so I think it is ok. The removed (cutwith razor blade) the two colonies that were in a complete meltdown. I hope the rest pull through. Lesson learned, beware of deals. Thanks for the input.
 
gatorcsm

gatorcsm

Member
How's temp in your tank? Any large swings? How fast was it acclimated.
I recently had a temp spike up to about 86 and everything did ok except for my xenia. It all died. Which, isn't too aweful, consider it was taking over and I was getting quite fed up with it...
Just a thought. But thomas sounds like he may have nailed it... Mine has never had a problem with me scaping it off of things, but maybe this particular species is different.
 
burnnspy

burnnspy

Active Member
If you are talking about those protrusions, the Xenia is not melting. Thomas712 is right, they are trying to attach to a new location.
 
the claw

the claw

Active Member
No it was definately melting. The texture was becoming sandy instead of smooth. The colony just wilted away, and STINK. My temp is at 80 with no spikes. I think the stress did it in. I'm hoping to salvage at least one or two colonies from the frag.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
It seems that people have really good luck with xenias or really bad luck. No rime or reason.
Mine grow like weeds.
 
the claw

the claw

Active Member
Do you guys keep any of them with your stony corals, or are they only in with softies and fuges?????
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Mine are kept with stonys now that I have stonys... It's just been a few weeks sense the stonys were introduced though.
Way do you ask?
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
I've seen the chemical warfare issue argued both ways. One reason I started running carbon 24/7 is to help out some. Anyone been running stonys and softys together for a long period of time?
 
the claw

the claw

Active Member
I've had lots of shrooms and zoanthids, and one Sinularia with LPS, and it didn't seem to bother them. I run carbon 24/7 and refresh it frequently. I just put a new Sinularia sp. and small red sea xenia in my large tank. I hope it doesn't cause problems. The main reason I got this jakrta xenia was for nutrient export, and the fact its different from everything else I have. I've read all the reports and data, and that's why I asked.
 
neoreef

neoreef

Member
Hi,
please excuse the hijack, but what are you using to stick the frag rock to the big rocks? I see some white in the picture, is that the stuff? I need to get some...
Kathy
 
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