blue xenia

[Reef Goddess]

Well since there's no "softy" blog, I'll just post on here.
I lucked into some healthy cespitularia about 3 weeks ago and (fingers crossed) it seems to be doing well. I can't really say that is has grown, but its definately starting to color up nicely.
I haven't figured out how to turn the flash on when in macro with my new camera, but if I could (lol) I think I would start to see a little glitter.

I started it out a bit in the shade with med flow and have been slowly moving it into brighter light and higher flow. So far so good. I have it under my 400w 14k HQI for now.

Hopefully I'll be able to work on fragging it in a few more months.

Anyone have any other tips on growing it?

 

[Patwa]

i've got a pretty wierd cespitularia myself (waaay different than yours, and without any spicules to give it the sparkles), and I bake it under my 400W HQI....it loves it......growth is pretty intense.....a 0.5" frag of it can double in size inside of 2-3 weeks, easy

and FWIW, i can already see the sparkles in yours! nice grab!

Zach.

 

[gm333]

Looks good.

 

[Azurel]

Looks good, might be interested at some point as well.....Great pick up!

 

[Reef Goddess]

Thanks! It wasn't nearly this pretty when I first got it. I didn't even like that much at first. ;]

 

[Sea MunnKey]

Do you mind telling us where this species is from? Regionwise..??

Thanks,
Paul

 

[cardgenius]

Nice looking peice. Mine loves light and medium flow. Once it settles in it should grow somewhat fast.

Be careful if you have any emerald crabs. I caught mine eating chunks out of mine till it was just a stump. I dont konw if all emeralds do it or if I just got unlucky.

 

[Hypertek99]

That piece looks huge!!

 

[Reef Goddess]

I was told it came from Africa, I'll see if I can find out for sure what area.

 

[Xirxes23]

If you want Xenia to grow well you need to overfeed, they LOVE high nitrate levels. In general the more nutrients in the water, the faster the growth. They are excellent nutrient exporters and i recommend the more common varieties for refugiems.

Other than that, they grown pretty quick in almost any environment.

 

[mikem]

Keep them far away from other corals. They can't handle toxins from other corals.

 

[Reef Goddess]

new pics

Finally got around to taking some pics with the flash on. Think its starting to show some sparkles now. I've noticed that its started to grow a lot faster lately, it has these weird growths that look like feet searching for more rock. It appears to be getting thicker and taller, especially in the last week or so. The polyp tips are also becoming much more fuzzy than before.

Mikem, I've been careful not to have it too close to other corals, but I know some of it was touching a leather for a day or two and no problems. I'm so happy that the ones I have seem to be very hardy. They are now directly under my 400w HQI and loving it. Also have them in quite a bit of variable flow. Gonna try fragging in another week or so. The longer I keep it the more I like it because it is so colorful.