My Xenia committed suicide while I was at work. Any ideas?

[Coelli]

Tank: 29g Biocube running poly floss, Purigen, Chemi-pure Elite in an Intank Media Basket. The tank is only a month old but has been stable and thriving.

I just got home to find my Xenia frag on its last leg... polyps. It was fine this morning when I left for work. Everything else in the tank appears fine.

Yesterday I changed the return from a Hydor rotating deflector to a Loc-line "circle flow" system. It's running across the back of the tank and has 4 of the side outlets pointed down behind the live rock along the back wall and 4 across the top of the water. I also moved my Jebao WP-10s, one on the top left back pointing straight to the front of the tank and one on the top right back pointing to the left corner. They are in a wave pattern but turned down significantly by my Apex.

The Xenia was in the bottom right front corner of the tank and not getting hit by anything directly. The GSP 2" to its left is fine, the zoas 2" to the left of the GSP, and the torch and frogspawn 6" and 8" from the GSP respectively are fine. So are the other corals in the tank (some very small green BN frags, a small green toadstool, a 5-headed duncan and a red monti cap frag). Fish (YWG and small royal gramma) are fine, snails are fine, peppermints are fine.

The toadstool and frogspawn were added yesterday a couple of hours after a 30% water change. My saltwater is bought pre-mixed from a local coral store. The toadstool was freshly fragged.

All water parameters are testing fine, 0s or near 0s (I know you're going to ask, so Kh is 9, around where it's always been). Salinity is 1.025, same as always. No temp or Ph swings today according to the Apex. This Xenia came as a frag of 3 trunks on the 27th and has been flourishing until today. It attached to the piece of LR and divided its foot recently.

Any thoughts? I'm figuring flow, even though it didn't seem to be getting battered, but I just don't know. I put it in a hospital box for now but I'm wondering whether it will recover or whether I should just toss it now. It really doesn't look good. Maybe it heard us talking about whether we should take it to the coral store before it caused a problem. Should I be concerned for my other livestock? If I'm going to lose anything in the tank I'm glad it was the Xenia, but I'm concerned for everyone else.

If you read this far, thanks!

The patient/corpse:

[Vapour1ze]

Xenia is usually pretty simple and hardy for the most part... And for it to die in a day is shocking. Was anything picking at it? Perhaps something sting it? Levels are good? How is everything else in the tank?

[Reef noob_]

doesn't seem to be physical damage, defiantly something in the water. have no real idea on what it might have been to affect only the one coral, but this also happened to me with my old tank, had a xenia for a week then one day it closed and never came back.

[Mikesmith34]

Ride the storm out. That stuff is not going to die and if it did it will come back. Something has just stressed it out. Purchased salt water makes me paranoid but to each his own on that. Just give it some time it will more than likely perk up and is just ****ed about the foot split.

[Coelli]

Originally Posted by Vapour1ze

Xenia is usually pretty simple and hardy for the most part... And for it to die in a day is shocking. Was anything picking at it? Perhaps something sting it? Levels are good? How is everything else in the tank?

Everything else in the tank is fine and looking good! Polyps extended and looking happy. All of my levels are good. I agree, it's pretty shocking so I'm really wondering if it was the flow... I only have the two small fish, and neither have ever shown any interest in the xenia. The only culprits it could have been would be the peppermint shrimp but they have also never shown any interest in coral, other than stealing food from the duncan. And it was pretty far from the torch and frogspawn (a good 10").

Originally Posted by Mikesmith34

Ride the storm out. That stuff is not going to die and if it did it will come back. Something has just stressed it out. Purchased salt water makes me paranoid but to each his own on that. Just give it some time it will more than likely perk up and is just ****ed about the foot split.

Yeah, I agree on the purchased saltwater (would never buy pre-packaged from Petco or anything) - but I buy it from a specialty coral store and it comes straight from their storage tanks. If they screwed up their water they'd crash their whole system so I trust that their sense of self-preservation will keep the water of good quality.

[Coelli]

I took the xenia out and trashed it - it was pretty lifeless and I was concerned that in such a small tank it'll nuke everything. The toadstool near it retracted all of its polyps; hopefully that was because it didn't like the xenia, and not because it's next. Wondering if I should do an emergency water change? Are they very toxic when they die?

[Silvergryphon]

Xenia doesn't release anything bad as far as I can recall. It looks salvageable though, might have just been closed up a bit.

[Coelli]

Originally Posted by Silvergryphon

Xenia doesn't release anything bad as far as I can recall. It looks salvageable though, might have just been closed up a bit.

Nope, everything was completely extended, turning dark brown/dark gray, and it had completely stopped trying to pulse, not a twitch. It's getting toward bedtime here so I didn't want to chance it but I'm glad to hear it doesn't release anything. The whole thing is really strange. I've seen it close up before but never just shrivel up like that. Thanks for the reassurance that it didn't poison my tank. Everything else still seems fine.

[Nina51]

xenia is one of those corals that is hit or miss. it does fine in one tank and dies in another. i tried xenia in my 29g biocube a couple of years ago. it lasted a week and then just melted. i don't think it helped that the hermits were always crawling all over it.

in my present tank, i have it growing and thriving here and there and have one big patch of it that's gorgeous.

xenia seems to like "dirty" water. give it another few months and try another frag of it.

[lespaul339]

Count your blessings. Xenia is a pest coral that can overtake a tank really quick and once it does its a PITA to get rid of!

[Silvergryphon]

Originally Posted by lespaul339

Count your blessings. Xenia is a pest coral that can overtake a tank really quick and once it does its a PITA to get rid of!

That is very true, almost as bad as blue snowflake polyps

[toothybugs]

I had my clump split off really quickly, then the "seedlings" were shriveled up like yours for about 2 months. They just recently started looking full and healthy again, and are starting to spread on the plug.

I'm somewhat happy they're the Crusoe of my tank - they're marooned on their own island

[ca1ore]

I have found xenia to be quite susceptible to bacterial infections. I've seen healthy stands recued to a pile of goo in just a day or so. OP picture doesn't look too bad, but if you start to see slime, get it out.

[Marishka]

the xenia on the pic looks ok,it doesnt seem to be melting or anything-just needs some flow imo

[PeterHall]

This happened to me. I had a big stalk doing well for a few months and then it just melted away. I have another sub species of xenia doing very well that experienced the exact same water quality.

[spikey114]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

I have found xenia to be quite susceptible to bacterial infections. I've seen healthy stands recued to a pile of goo in just a day or so. OP picture doesn't look too bad, but if you start to see slime, get it out.

Would dipping in iodine help in this case?

[Mcgeezer]

I've got so much Xenia that I couldn't give it away. I have to cut it off the rock and flush it every month or so.

Started at about 20 heads....now it's about maybe 3,000 in 8 months.

Honestly, your tank is only a month old. You're stocking it rather quickly and not allowing your biological filtration to take a foothold. New tanks go through dramatic changes over the first few months and the water quality can change rapidly, along with minute changes in chemistry. If I was you I would consider slowing down.

[Roger30]

My Xenia starts looking bad if my phosphates starts to go up!

[Coelli]

Originally Posted by Mcgeezer

Honestly, your tank is only a month old. You're stocking it rather quickly and not allowing your biological filtration to take a foothold. New tanks go through dramatic changes over the first few months and the water quality can change rapidly, along with minute changes in chemistry. If I was you I would consider slowing down.

I'm not being facetious when I ask this, I'm genuinely curious. I have about 35# of live rock that was fully cured and cycled and bought locally, so it had no die-off. My sand bed is not a DSB. I don't have a sump since it's an AIO, I'm running floss to catch detritus and change it every couple of days. I test my water every couple of days just to track it, and have my LFS (a coral store with a great reputation) test weekly for things my test kit isn't accurate for, like phosphate. Other than high phosphate (.14) at the very start that came down quickly with some GFO which was removed before adding coral, my parameters have been stable and normal. I do a 20-30% weekly water change, usually 20% (5 gallons) with water from the coral store (they have an overkill water system and are known for their water quality among the local reefing community) and I have an ATO with RO/DI. I feed lightly and am careful not to overfeed; the coral I have added have all been small pieces and thumbs-up'd by the coral store (other than the xenia, the monti cap, and the BN frags which were unplanned and given to me at a swap 3 weeks ago - they were the first coral. The xenia was literally ripped up by the roots from an outdoor tank and stuck in a deli cup and handed to me. Of 6 pieces, only the one that "died" yesterday made it through the night). All of the coral frags I've added since are fairly small and have been added one or two at a time with some time between them; the coral store knows what I have already have and are quick to tell me if something isn't a good idea for my tank. The fish are small and have been spaced out instead of added all at once. What is going to change over the next few months?

I do plan to add a pair of juvenile ocellaris, but not for a few weeks. I'll probably pick up some zoas at Reef-a-Palooza in 2 weeks too, but I'm almost at capacity for the tank considering what's already in there.

This is a FTS the day before the xenia died (in the bottom right). It was closed in the photo but I had just been in the tank putting in the Loc Line system and "scared" it.



Edit: There are some diatoms currently after adding 1/4" of new sand with chunky bits for the pistol shrimp. Prior to that it was clean and diatom-free. The tank is algae-free for the most part - the green on the rocks is coralline.

[Coelli]

Rather than editing again I'll just make this new post with the update - so far it's business as usual in the tank and everything looks happy, fluffy, and extended. I really do think it was too much flow, it may have been in some kind of perfect storm where it was.

[tmz]

Mine loves high flow. It also likes some nutrients: nitrate, PO4 and organics. Not zeros.

[bundybear1981]

Strange stuff! The xenia in my tank likes the lower flow. Its a largish bit, one part in higher flow with small extension, other part in low flow with much better extension. It all closed up for about 2 months then with no changes started to open again on its own.