Blue Xenia ( Cuspitularia) care
- Thread starter KLR
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condor
CORAL DR.
i have had it thrive 12in from a 400w 14k and also at the bottom of a 150g with the same light. and i have had in spread like wild fire under t-5s. and ive had it blasted by current and in near motionless water. i guess im saying that it is not picky as long as the water is good
deepbluesea
Community Member
mine is 6" under a 250 mh 20k twards the side of the tank. it is in with sps so it gets good flow. i tried it under a 4 bulb t5 ho in lower flow it definatly dident care for it dont know if it was the light or the flow but not happy there.mine isint intense blue i suspect it might color up more under 10k. i know someone that keeps them under a 150 mh 10k and gets wounderfull color.hope this helps seems like an answer that may raise more questions than anything else.
I
inactive
Guest
Super easy coral to take care of... grows like a weed. Over rated coral IMO, but nice.
I
inactive
Guest
I agree to this statement. I had the hardest time removing my colony in my 55 last year... I still cut off little pieces that pop up. This stuff is almost impossible to kill, unless of course your salinity is high/low.
OP
OP
Ok i have the pulsing xenia and it does grow like weeds but I justread where the blue xenia are a slow grower and have lots of requirements..
But thanks for all the replies
But thanks for all the replies
Emoney
unregistered
+1 Me and friends joke the Xenia and a Yellow tang could live in sewer Water!:tongue:
Honestly, my tank Parameters were UP and Down like a roller coaster when i first started in the hobby, and Xenia Has always thrived..No worries in my opinion
I am in the minority here but I have definitely had trials and tribulations with keeping true Cespitularia. It will do fine for a while and then bust at the least disturbance.
I had a strain I called Apex Teal (from Apex) that was just transcendant...electric glowing teal with metallic gold spicules floating in the tissue that sparkled with halide lights. At first it did well for me and I fragged it quite a bit into four sub colonies. Then a tank move wiped out all but one of them. A few months later an old bulb claimed the last one which had strangely stopped growing after the move. I got the strain back from someone who I given a frag to and lost it again to the same kind of silliness a few months later.
So I guess I'd like to hear specifics as to those that have had the real stuff (not bluish xenia or the most commonly sold blue anthelia) and had long term success with it. What's your chemistry? Water change schedule? Lighting? Skimming? Bulb replacement schedule? Relative nutrient load?
Heres a pic of Apex Teal, its significantly better in person:
And a Second African variety I got from Sharky back in the day:
I had a strain I called Apex Teal (from Apex) that was just transcendant...electric glowing teal with metallic gold spicules floating in the tissue that sparkled with halide lights. At first it did well for me and I fragged it quite a bit into four sub colonies. Then a tank move wiped out all but one of them. A few months later an old bulb claimed the last one which had strangely stopped growing after the move. I got the strain back from someone who I given a frag to and lost it again to the same kind of silliness a few months later.
So I guess I'd like to hear specifics as to those that have had the real stuff (not bluish xenia or the most commonly sold blue anthelia) and had long term success with it. What's your chemistry? Water change schedule? Lighting? Skimming? Bulb replacement schedule? Relative nutrient load?
Heres a pic of Apex Teal, its significantly better in person:
And a Second African variety I got from Sharky back in the day:
Acropolis
Community Member
They appreciate intense light and will adapt to lower levels, but other than that it's any easy coral.
The healthy specimen problem is tied to the general problem you might be having. The key with this one as with any other animal is acclimation.
I think the urban legend surrounding this coral's allelopathic sensitivity is due to the culmination of stressors. if you get one without polyps extending and growing, you need to limit it's contact with allelopathic compounds, so change the carbon more regularly. if you get one fluffy and healthy, it'll be a weed from the start.
The healthy specimen problem is tied to the general problem you might be having. The key with this one as with any other animal is acclimation.
I think the urban legend surrounding this coral's allelopathic sensitivity is due to the culmination of stressors. if you get one without polyps extending and growing, you need to limit it's contact with allelopathic compounds, so change the carbon more regularly. if you get one fluffy and healthy, it'll be a weed from the start.
Meisen,
I still have both of your's. The African 'blue' hasn't grown for me like the electric blue (Apex's from Nashville, Jan 08). I had some wild times with it, too. I cut a piece for a friend as a back up piece. His frag grew to four times the size of the frag I cut it from in a week (sitting side by side). He put it in a 300, ~4" from the surface under 400W MH, and it exploded. He doesn't feed much at all, but has some hair algae and majano's, so there is some nutrient there somewhere.
I took a piece back from him and put it in my cess pool, and it exploded. The cess pool was a 50 gallon livestock tub connected to a 40B. No biological filtration aside from the glass
. Inch to two inch detritus drifts, and it exploded. Lighting there was 175W Ushio 14k's.
I consolidated systems and went to T5's. For the first six months, it continued to grow like mad. High nutrient in that tank, too (no skimmer for over two years, water changes, maybe once every three or four months). It started slowing down then. Wanted to move the mother colony into my back room, and it has started to decline. Still ahve plenty of it, but it isn't thriving like it was a year ago. That system is high nutrient, too, but lower light.
What I've noticed is that strong lighting and decent flow gave me the best polyp extension. Got into many an argument with people stating it wasn't Cespitularia because it had full polyp extension... Under lower flow and light, the ends look more like fingers than baskety polyps. This is the best looking oral I've ever seen in the sun. Mine don't glow under sunlight/flashlight now like they did eight months ago, or so, so something is up...
I still have both of your's. The African 'blue' hasn't grown for me like the electric blue (Apex's from Nashville, Jan 08). I had some wild times with it, too. I cut a piece for a friend as a back up piece. His frag grew to four times the size of the frag I cut it from in a week (sitting side by side). He put it in a 300, ~4" from the surface under 400W MH, and it exploded. He doesn't feed much at all, but has some hair algae and majano's, so there is some nutrient there somewhere.
I took a piece back from him and put it in my cess pool, and it exploded. The cess pool was a 50 gallon livestock tub connected to a 40B. No biological filtration aside from the glass
. Inch to two inch detritus drifts, and it exploded. Lighting there was 175W Ushio 14k's.I consolidated systems and went to T5's. For the first six months, it continued to grow like mad. High nutrient in that tank, too (no skimmer for over two years, water changes, maybe once every three or four months). It started slowing down then. Wanted to move the mother colony into my back room, and it has started to decline. Still ahve plenty of it, but it isn't thriving like it was a year ago. That system is high nutrient, too, but lower light.
What I've noticed is that strong lighting and decent flow gave me the best polyp extension. Got into many an argument with people stating it wasn't Cespitularia because it had full polyp extension... Under lower flow and light, the ends look more like fingers than baskety polyps. This is the best looking oral I've ever seen in the sun. Mine don't glow under sunlight/flashlight now like they did eight months ago, or so, so something is up...
