Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / November 2005

"but any Xenia elongata we've tried
to keep has withered away."

Well what are your tank specs? Water peram., size , lighting, placement and current?

There's an interesting article in the Jan 06 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist
on Xenia. Definitely worth checking out. Your Xenia may just be going
through a natural seasonal "crash" and will regrow itself if left alone.

There's no 100% certain cause of these animals crashing but the drift of the
article indicates that they WILL regrow themselves over time.

Worth a looksee.

What are the nitrates and phosphates in your tank ?

Xenia feeds directly taking nutrients from water.
The same happened to me - elongata and pompom lived together
in one tank. As the water quality improved after adding lighted sump
with deep sand bed and macroalgae the elongata disappeared first.
Pompom Xenia seems to live cleaned water than Elongata and I still
have some pompoms left in the tank but they struggle hard and with
every water change there is less and less healthy look on the polyps.
Right now I have undetectable nitrates and I am fighting with high
phosphates - Xenia is disappearing and I do not have any healthy
xenia polyp left. Couple of months ago I was producing a lot of Xenia
and took many times to a local fish store for a credit. Now it is all gone.
Sadly, my bubble tip anemone is not looking too good either...
The price you pay for haveing too clean water ?

Try dosing nitrates to your tank if you do not mind some of the
unwanted algae growth.