Pulsing Xenia - How fast does it spread?

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DarthFred6996

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Mar 13, 2007
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I have a new (and my first ever) coral. It is a pulsing xenia as can be seen in in the pics. How fast does this spread? Is there any special treatment to get it to spread? How can I frag it and make it spread? Should I target feed it? I want it to spread and cover up the top rock it is sitting on.

I want to learn all I can about this one before I go on to the next type of coral. I guess I did it backwards, huh. I should have researched then got the xenia, but I knew the experts here could help.:)

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Catpicklesdog

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Feb 25, 2007
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In my experience very fast. I started off with two tiny frags a month and a half ago and now look: The bottom picture where my maroon b***h is started off as 1 then it just sort of split leaving a stringy bit between which eventually disappeared to leave a second growth. That's why I like buying smaller frags (and because it's cheaper) you have fun watching them grow.

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Germanman

My fish are my babies
it depends on ur water and lighting. xenia like a bit of "dirt" to the water, in other words less carbon and more organics. they also spread faster under different lighting, usually the brighter the faster. it takes them a while to get comfy but when they do ull be looking for friends to take some off ur hands.
also depends on the type as well Xenia elongata seems to grow faster than the rest
 

RothChyld

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Feb 16, 2003
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The best way I have found to propagate these is to place smaller rocks around the colony. When the Xenia spread onto those rocks you can just pull out the smaller rock and replace it. This way you do not have to mess around with trying to cut and stick them onto something else. They do like Iodine but mine have grown just fine without supplementing a whole lot. I have medium flow and they are at the top of my tank soaking in 300 watts of metal halide lighting.

Mike
 

Denzil

Linaker
May 18, 2007
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RE:

I bought one attached to a shell. 3 months later it started to attach itself to painted fibreglass false rock. In my opinion you can just leave them to do there thing. Just place them next to where you want them to frag.
 

fsn77

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Feb 22, 2006
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Fortunately, Xenia is one of the easier corals to propogate once it becomes established in your tank. The rock garden around the main colony works well for getting frags off of it, or it'll just spread onto whatever it touches -- even the glass of your tank.

There's no reason to target feed Xenia, as there's much debate whether or not it can actually capture suspended particles or not. IME, target feeding is not required for it to spread like wild fire.
 

DarthFred6996

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Mar 13, 2007
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Notice the date of the first post. I have now been giving it away for free to anyone that will come and get it.

I like my blue better.
 
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