Thoughts on what's eating my Xenia

[Over_Engineered]

My Xenia were growing beautifully out of control for the past year until maybe 2 weeks ago. Initially I suspected some kind of water condition, but now I much more suspect a critter. A few days ago I did a 40% water change along with lifting up the xenia island rock and saw both bristle worms and what look to be brittle starfish swarming the underside of that rock. The xenia has continued to melt away. Bolstering a critter theory for me is that on the far side of the tank is a xenia patch that detached and homed there some time ago. The remote Xenia looks perfect and is what I'll use to reseed my Xenia island. Likely these critters came in a few weeks ago when a friend of mine gave me a ton of rock, corals, and fish from his tank tear down.

Does it seem likely that the worms, starfish or something else is causing such rapid damage? He did give me a reasonably large 2 barred rabbit fish that he said used to nip at his xenia.

Thoughts? Proposed fixes?
Thanks.

Before



After


Under the rock

 

[Andrew Zimmerman]

I had all my xenia and leather coral melt away after I used a type of phosphate absorber. I don't remember what type, but the media was white. I didn't even realize what caused it until a few years later when I saw a similar story.

 

[Over_Engineered]

I had all my xenia and leather coral melt away after I used a type of phosphate absorber. I don't remember what type, but the media was white. I didn't even realize what caused it until a few years later when I saw a similar story.

interesting. I tossed the large chunk of Xenia finally today. It was just melting into the tank and dumping goo into my water. Will see in a week or so if the remaining Xenia recovers or also melts.

 

[JGT]

Don’t think it’s the worms or brittle stars. Could be the foxface nipping and might have gotten a bacterial infection.

 

[John08007]

What are your water prams? Nitrate? Phosphate? Add iodine?

 

[Over_Engineered]

A large portion of the Xenia attached to the rock turned into a sort of rubber hard yellow substance. Maybe the critters were locating at the Xenia island also because the clowns host in it and are laying eggs there.

I don't have an iodine tester, but nitrates and phosphates don't register on my test kit (so zero?). Just ordered an ICP test kit. Will see if they detect anything out of whack with my water.

 

[John08007]

A large portion of the Xenia attached to the rock turned into a sort of rubber hard yellow substance. Maybe the critters were locating at the Xenia island also because the clowns host in it and are laying eggs there.

I don't have an iodine tester, but nitrates and phosphates don't register on my test kit (so zero?). Just ordered an ICP test kit. Will see if they detect anything out of whack with my water.

This could be your problem, xenia needs nitrates. I don't have an iodine test kit but I add it from time to time.