moving xenia

I have large piece of an old dead coral that someone gave us when we bought our tank. We had it in there at first until we had more live rock then we were going to take it out cuz we dont like it in there. Well we never got around to taking it out and now there is a small xenia growing on it. We would like to get the zenia off so we can remove the dead coral. Does anybody know how to do this without hurting the xenia? Thanks for the help.

 

well xenia are pretty tough little buggers...if its big enough you can cut off the branches...or just cut off from the stump...heck you can even try to peel it off

 

Thanks. We're going to try some tweezers to get at it. Its all up inside a crevice.

 

Well, after we did the tweezer thing I found a site that shows how they propegate zenia. Use a turkey baster to suck up the one stalk, then cut it at the base with scissors. After that put the clipping on a small piece of rock then wrap it with fabric from an old wedding veil or panty hose, then hang that in the tank till it attaches. Sounds like a good idea for next time, although I sure wont be using my wedding veil!! LOL.

 

I have a friend that frags 5 -15 pieces of xenia a week ( I call his tank the xenia forrest) and all he does is get a finger nail underneath it and slowly work the peice off the rock. I have also had luck in doing it this way. After getting the frag off he just rubberbands it to a piece of rubble and lets it sit for about 3 days.

 

Well that definetaly sounds easier. The only problem with this piece was that it was in such a tricky, hard to reach spot. But we hope to make some frags to trade soon, so the peeling method sounds worth a try. Thanks.

 

perhaps just break up the old dead coral into smaller pieces and keep the xenia attached... just a thought..

 

We tried that briefly, but it was harder than we thought