Change in Xenia Apperacnce, any advise? Pics Included

I bought a small xenia frag about 2 months ago. The first month it did great, and grew like crazy. It attached it self to a rock right away, then split several times. See pics below:





Its growth now has slowed quite a bit. Not the "arms" that its polyps are atached to are no where near as long or wavy. The polyps also are much smaller now and no longer look "feathery". It still pulses all day long though.

Recent pics:





Params are as follows:

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Ca: 380
dKH: 10
PO4: 0

Any advise to get my Xenia to "perk" back up?

Thanks

 

Corals will change appearance as a result acclimating to their environment. My purple mushrooms were vivid purple when bought. I placed them in my 55G under my T5s, and they slowly became less purple. They were no less healthy, as evidenced by their meaty, pimply texture and copious reproduction.

When I moved to a 90G, and employed halides instead, the mushrooms looked quite sickly for a month, and for the last two months they're looking as close to that vivid purple as they ever have. They look great.

Just before I got my 90, the same friend who sold me the halides asked me to take some xenia out of his tank, as they were long and stringy, and growing like weeds and encroaching on a clam in his tank.

When I put the xenia in my tank they took on a completely different appearance than in his. They are short, compact, stout and very healthy--like yours, they never stop pumping. They don't look anything like their "parents" although I suppose "clone" would be a better word.

What I took away from these experiences is that corals change appearance due to their surroundings and water quality, which is always in flux. Just as I learned in psychology class, every behavior has a distinct purpose--same for appearance of corals. They look the way they do because of conditions. We only need to be concerned if they look like they're dying, and your xenia look great! I wouldn't worry.

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you so much for your reply!

This is my first reef tank, and first time owning corals. Would you consider my Xenia to look healthy? The first pics look healthy to me, but I am unsure about how they look now. The polyps are 1/2 the size as they were before, and they are no longer wavy.

What are the signs of poor health for a coral?

Do Xenia eat, or do they live off of photosynthesis a loan?

At times the polyps will all clinch like a fist, is that normal?

 

xenia do eat but your tank should have enough stuff floating around to feed it, if it was dying it would probably stop pulsing, xenia also need alot of iodine, do oyu have a test for that?

 

xenia do eat but your tank should have enough stuff floating around to feed it, if it was dying it would probably stop pulsing, xenia also need alot of iodine, do you have a test for that?

 

My xenia pulse a little throughout the morning, but they pulse like mad in the evening when the ph rises, its normal for them to curl up into a fist like state, even more so if you have inverts walking over them, just before i turn my lights on the majority of the xenia is all closed up, but open fully and pulse as soon as light hits them, hope this helps...

 

Your xenia looks GREAT! I prefer them looking like perfect little trees...

 

Fast-growing corals like xenia know what they need. If they aren't getting enough light, they will grow upwards and stretch towards the light. In fact, this is how I always fragged mushrooms.....a week or two before I wanted to frag it, I would put it into a low light tank. Instead of it being a disk on the rock, it had a long stem and the disk was raised up off of the rock. Then I just snipped the stem.

 

I find that DKH really effects them also you keep that level then you should be fine like In wall said they know what they need .. But over the yrs playing with them I find low Carbonates relate to melt down and slow to no pulsing .

 

Tangster,
What would you consider a low DKH?