Pulsing Xenia, can it be controlled?

[cycled123]

I've always loved pulsing xenia. I finally put some in a 37g anemone dominate tank. Has bubble tips, condy and rock nems, kenyi tree (another nemisis) and pulsing xenia. It's turning out pretty cool.

 

[reef lover]

Whaaaaa!!!!!
I can’t get rid of mine.

They go in the herb garden.

Idk my lfs sells out pretty quick...I'm down there every few weeks loading them with it and cespitularia...every time I go back they'e out again!

 

[JasPR]

You know, one man's dream is another nightmare! In Amano freshwater planted tanks, the dream is have an entire aquarium covered with low growing mosses and spending grass. In reefing, I have seen the opposite-- sort of a Noah's ark halfed with every specimen of frag known to man-- kinda un-settles my 'Chinese chi'! My point? Not everyone wants one of a kind hard to keep/easy to kill oddities-- common can be cool and invasive can be designed to create a wonderland of indestructibility and molded underwatered art-- to each his own

 

[lbacha]

You know, one man's dream is another nightmare! In Amano freshwater planted tanks, the dream is have an entire aquarium covered with low growing mosses and spending grass. In reefing, I have seen the opposite-- sort of a Noah's ark halfed with every specimen of frag known to man-- kinda un-settles my 'Chinese chi'! My point? Not everyone wants one of a kind hard to keep/easy to kill oddities-- common can be cool and invasive can be designed to create a wonderland of indestructibility and molded underwatered art-- to each his own

My display fuge is full of Xenia and I get more comments on it than I do on my sps dominant main tank. I'm actually planning on setting up a cheap aio nano at work with just Xenia and some mushrooms.

To your point while Xenia and gsp's can be invasive it also keeps a lot of people in the hobby as they can keep it alive and it really isn't an eyesore

 

[Joshua Kerstetter]

I'm an incredible novice here, but for over a year I've been able to successfully keep control of both my pulsing xenia and GSP. The GSP is limited to small rocks that I sell off as pieces, and I'm training it to crawl the back wall of my tank, where somewhere hopefully it will cover it, if I have to blade it off from the top someday that's fine, but it'll take a long time to cover 7'-24". My pulsing xenia, is isolated to 2 softball sized rocks, where occasionally I get shooters and drifters, but they're easy to snag and flush. One weird thing I noticed, the first few months of having it, it constantly wanted to spread and have drifters, but now, it barely attempts to spread out. I think I just broke its spirit, its more than happy to just be a pulsing ball.

 

[choss]

Xenia does jump - I have it in a small 20 gallon clown tank and it has transferred to other rocks. GSP on the other hand has not. I have maintained it on an island and it behaves nicely. I do love the Xenia and I do believe it keeps the nutrients down in this tank and the clown fish love it. They dive into it and will use it to host.

 

[RudyB]

Absolutely you can keep them controled. Just keep them isolated from your main rock work. You can keep them on your main rock if you have a seperate flat rock and you place it as high as possible so they can't climb anywhere else. That is how I have them. That way you can trim them easy. I have had them for over ten years. They do take some husbantry but you can always trade them for other stuff. By the way they are a great indicator that your water perameters are off as they grow faster in not so great water perameters. So the beter your water quality is the slower they will grow. Keep her happy and you will be as well.

 

[JasPR]

I'm an incredible novice here, but for over a year I've been able to successfully keep control of both my pulsing xenia and GSP. The GSP is limited to small rocks that I sell off as pieces, and I'm training it to crawl the back wall of my tank, where somewhere hopefully it will cover it, if I have to blade it off from the top someday that's fine, but it'll take a long time to cover 7'-24". My pulsing xenia, is isolated to 2 softball sized rocks, where occasionally I get shooters and drifters, but they're easy to snag and flush. One weird thing I noticed, the first few months of having it, it constantly wanted to spread and have drifters, but now, it barely attempts to spread out. I think I just broke its spirit, its more than happy to just be a pulsing ball.

 

[JasPR]

Good Post Joshua. I think that in a new aquarium ( unbalanced on the micro level) these species take full advantage of water chemistry. As a system ages they do tend to calm down. But I've also seen then speed up again at times. One of things I do is encourage expands onto interesting rocks and dead corals. I'm working on spreading one on branching coral now. Here's a shot of growth on old coral piece

 

[rosshamsandwich]

YMMV...but Xenia is like my Reef ATM machine..everytime i need to buy some reef stuff, i trim it up and trade it into the LFS for store credit to buy stuff i want...It's an awesome cycle.. It's better than a money tree!

 

[rosshamsandwich]

10 years in and I haven’t had Xenia spread like wildfire.

I must be doing somethig wrong.

feed your tank more johnny

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

feed your tank more johnny

Lol. You wouldn’t belive me if I told you. Low nutrients are not s problem in that tank.

Actualy , I just trim them and keep an eye out for babies that get dropped.

 

[gcrawford]

I had a free one given to me at a reef club meeting years ago....If only I'd said no thank you........

 

[1979fishgeek]

I wish I could get it grow! Love Pulsimg Xenia and in over three years I can only keep a few stalks.

 

[cycled123]

I have always wanted pulsing xenia but didn't want it to over take everything. Finally set up my solution: a 37g anemone dominate tank with pulsing xenia and kenyi trees. So far so good

 

[JasPR]

YMMV...but Xenia is like my Reef ATM machine..everytime i need to buy some reef stuff, i trim it up and trade it into the LFS for store credit to buy stuff i want...It's an awesome cycle.. It's better than a money tree!

cool-- it also takes the pressure off of collecting wild stock-- all good

 

[Forsaken77]

My gf is really wanting to get some pulsing xenia, she always points it out when we go to the lfs. It would be nice to get it considering she is totally supportive of my reefing and quite enjoys it, but everything I've read tells me that it will be a pain as it becomes invasive.

If I was to put it on its own rock on the sand bed, would I be able to keep it contained on just that rock? are there ways to control pulsing xenia? same goes for green star polyps?

I'm not a coral keeper, but I have pulsing Xenia because supposedly they are the best for nutrient export.

I put a small piece, that the girl mangled at the store, on a single rock highest in the tank. My fish think everything new is food. So my Foxfaces ate it down to a nub. It has since grown back to double the size of when I bought it.

It hasn't shown up anywhere else because in that tank I have a gyre that shoots all water past the overflow, with a large 50 micron sock to catch anything in the sump. I actually wish it would spread to further my experiment. The piece is getting bigger, but not multiplying.

But from what I've read, it doesn't do well in super clean water. You need nutrients. Mine also don't pulse anymore because I have flow going past them and they don't need to waste the energy pulsing if you do it for them. So a low flow area would make them pulse better. They also prefer to grow on a vertical surface, like the back wall of the tank or side of a rock.

You can keep them in check. People with a tank full didn't remove them when they should have. But you should have cleaner water by using them.

If your gf wants them, and you don't, make an area in the sump and let it be like a macro algae area that she can look after if she wants. They don't need intense light and just make sure your sump has a foam pad before the return to prevent them from entering the display.