Xenia frags keep melting

[KRG]

I am stumped with a problem I keep having every time I trim my Xenia. The mother colony is very healthy and has grown from one stock to 14 in 4-5 months. It pulses 100% of the time and even continues to pulse when I slice it. The stocks branch out to about 3 crowns per stock. I trim one crown off close to the base, place it in a shell and suspend it in netting in medium current. The first day the cutting continues to pulse and looks 50% or more deflated. Day two it is severely deflated and pulses intermittently. By day three and four there is no more pulsing and it begins to melt. I have heard some people use iodine but I haven't felt the need too since I replenish trace elements with 1 gallon water changes every day via drip. The tank is 55 gallons. Could iodine be my problem or is there some obvious trick that I am missing? (I keep the cuttings in the main tank near the mother colony) I've attached a pic of the main colony and a pic of a frag on day two. I've searched this site, googled and studied the .mpg at Garf. It seems like at least one should make it....
View attachment 11376

View attachment 11377

Thank you,
Kristine

 

[WA coral]

I always put rubble rock next to my main colony so when it spreads it gets a good footing on the rubble then I just cut the thin piece of flesh that has streched from the main colony and have had no problem . I have cut the whole stock before and had them live but it seems to put way more stress on the piece and is very hard to get it to attach.

 

[KRG]

WA Coral,

What do you do when the Xenia gets too close to other corals or start creeping vertically down the rocks? One area that I keep trimming is trying to jump over a rock covered in mushrooms. I can't lay rubble on top of the mushrooms so I just keep cutting back when they touch. The other side of the colony is on a bit of a cliff and just reaches out in the middle of nothing. Those areas I trim back as well.

 

[steve-s]

First thing that comes to mind is how your placing the coral after fragging. It's in a shell and med-low flow. This can often lead to necrosis in newly cut frags where they are not getting enough flow to keep them clean. Also be sure the tank it's placed in is not the same as it was cut from.

Place the coral in it's own tank (frag tank), good alk/pH levels, higher "open" flow, carbon and regular lighting. Pinning the coral or placing it in a shallow dish, rock rubble and some open veil material are good options.

Cheers
Steve

 

[WA coral]

I was just talking about wedging a small piece of rubble wherever the xinia trys to put a foot down I have shrooms next to mine as well but I just push them aside, it dosent hurt them , you dont want to cover them, It only has to be a small piece of rubble I use 50 cent piece size just so it has some where to put a foot down and as soon as it is half way on the rubble and secure cut the extra flesh that is still attached to the main colony.

 

[spongebob lover]

i just have something little to say.
My xenia was taking over my mushrooms place and one of them started melting, so i moved some of my xenia away from the mushroom with my fingers and it kind of came of pretty quick and it wasn't hard.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

two common influences are water chem on the edge of safe levels for Xenia (low pH below 8.3 and/or low Alk below 9 dKH) and densely populated aquaria (Xeniids are weak and suffer allelpathy badly from many other corals... the parent is established but many frags never will in such cases. Is your tank weak on water changes, carbon use, etc or heavy on bioload?)

 

[KRG]

Well, it very well could be the PH and in addition the lower flow as Steve S stated. My tests are showing PH at 8.2 (I don't trust it that much.....wish I had a PH meter) KH 9, Calcium 420, nitrate and phosphate 0. Temp is 80°, never fluctuates. Salinity 34. I do not use any additives. Daily 1 gallon water changes via drip and RO water for top off. About once a month I will do a 10% water change to clean everything up a bit. This tank is a softie tank with out a refugium. I grow Sargassum (sp?) algae in the main display to assist with nutrient export. The occupants that I have in this tank are as follows; Yellow Toadstool leather, Devil's Hand, Colt, Xenia, Ricordea Mushrooms, Green Mushrooms, Button Polyps, Star Polyps, 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma, 1 yellow tang, 1 6-line wrasse, 3 cleaner shrimp and 3 or 4 peppermint shrimp, astrea snails and hermits. Everything appears to be healthy and happy with placement. I change carbon once a month and empty a full skimmer cup once or twice a week - Aqua C Remora Pro.

ps- hopefully the KH reading is accurate. The test I have is one that you keep adding drops to the vial until the water turns from blue to yellow....the problem is that there is no chart to compare the yellow shade with. I stop adding at the first sign of no green.

 

[KRG]

oops, guess I should mention that the tank is 55g.

 

[vanreefer]

ps- hopefully the KH reading is accurate. The test I have is one that you keep adding drops to the vial until the water turns from blue to yellow....the problem is that there is no chart to compare the yellow shade with. I stop adding at the first sign of no green.

Sounds Hageny... Hagen test kits can be less that reliable... I would recomend using salifert

 

[shallowreef]

Temp might also play into this. You see the net keeps it them closer to the surface where the light is stronger and it may be heating up the water temp in the shell. Or the light may just be too intense for xenia that close to the surface. But i;m not really sure. Try putting them in a tuperware container on the bottom of your tank and see if you get any response.

 

[KRG]

Success!!!!!

I finally discovered that the base of the Xenia was not getting sufficient water flow inside of the shells. (thanks steve-s) I flipped the shells over and layed the xenia frags on top and presto!!! It has worked all three times I have tried it and one frag even moved off the shell onto my netting which I then had to cut up.