Blue Xenia or Waving Hand Xenia

[Drew Nietert]

As I was looking up info on this Xenia I purchased at a LFS, it appears to be a waving hand xenia - although the LFS sold it as a blue xenia.

It actually is kinda purple.

Can anyone identify specifcally

For the history of this little guy go to www.nietert.org then click on photos, then reef tank. I almost lost him, but he is comming back.

 

[Mihai]

It is a waving hand Xenia, i.e., an Anthelia sp. as opposed to a true Xenia (forms a mat and has no common stalks for the polyps). It grows relatively fast and I happen to like it.

M.

 

[Drew Nietert]

Mine seems to go from healthy to losing some of its colony from day to day.

This rock was twice as full two weeks ago.
For the last 4 days it was doing great, then today it started dying off again.

Once a week I put in 1 drop of Iodine, and the rest of the corals are growing quite well.

See the Xenia history at www.nietert.org
Go to photos, then reef tank and you can see daily pics of the corals.

Any suggestions for this species?

 

[Mihai]

They enjoy a bit of light and flow. What's your light and flow? Do you have any other corals? Xenia is a bit sensitive to water quality.

M.

 

[Drew Nietert]

I have 185 Watts of power on a 30G
Red & Blue Mushrooms
A Cabbage Coral
A stick/tree polyp
and Green Star Polyps

The Stick Polyps are doing average as well.

Everything else is growing great.

See www.nietert.org click on photos then reef tank and you'll see the whole thing.

Water quality, as measured by my test kits as well as the LFS is excellent in all catagories except a little high in phophate over the last couple of weeks, but that has come down to below .01 since Saturday.

 

[Mihai]

The light is OK. What do you have for circulation? Do you have a skimmer? Did you ever tested the pH early in the morning?

How long did you have the frag? If it's less than 3-5 days it probably still gets used to your tank. Did you acclimated it? How?

Mihai

 

[Drew Nietert]

My filtration is my circulation
My filtration is a Prism Red Sea Skimmer
A biowheel 125 and a Rena Canister P1
That provides quite a bit of water flow, in fact I put my Xenia behind some rocks to block some of the water flow

I have never tested in the early morning, typically I test around 11am or after 6pm.

Acclimation of the xenia - lights off, in bag in aquarium for 15-20 minutes, then I put it in.

I will do a complete water test early saturday morning.

 

[Mihai]

OK, the circulation is on the slow side. Although it may seem like a lot, you should shoot for at least a 10 times turnover in an hour. For a 30gal, you want at least a 300 gal/h (more for SPS).

But this is probably not the problem: the aclimatization is. Floating the bag equalizes the temperature, but this is not enough for saltwater. Suddent changes in pH and/or salinity, can kill any coral and invertebrate or hurt it seriously.

If it survived over 2-3 days it will probably make it eventually, just don't do that next time. The good technique is either a drip acclimatization (the most gentle on the creatures and worry free for you) or by putting a cup of water in the bag every 5 minutes and throwing half of the water away when it doubles volume. Do that until you empty the water three times and put the coral in the tank. For sensitive invertebrates (shrimps, urchins, stars, slugs) only drip acclimatization would do.

M.