pulsing xenia

[Diomedes]

Deano makes a good point here...Anthelia spp. (A morphologically similar member of the Xeniid family) are commonly mistaken for Xenia and can have a variety of care requirements...I have thought before that Anthelia are the root of the confusion about the care requirements for Xenia spp, because not all Anthelia spp. are easy to care for...just ask Ranz...he has an anthelia in his 300 gallon tank that he has moved around when he saw that it wasn't thriving in its present location after a suitable period. On another note, some Anthelia spp. pulse, though not as many as in the Xenia genus. It takes a trained eye to tell some species apart (so I hear) and since I don't have that training I will now shut my mouth.

Stephen

PS - anyway I think you have true Xenia you gold-toothed beer-chugging secretary. Keep your pH above 8.3

[smokinreefer]

well ranz, if you wawnt some anthelia that is super hardy, let me know, i can most definitely hook you up.

i have some that survived a rio pump disaster. a couple months afte the crash i saw the tiniest single polyp emerge from the original rock it was on. from there, it has grown like there is no tommorrow.

[golden69_ca]

i guess mine will never pulse i have done water changes tested everything myself along with 3 diferent stores . luck of the draw i guess i might take them back to where i got them and put them back in the origanal tank and see if they pulse and get some water from there and fully test it to see how off im from there .

[smokinreefer]

honestly...i think your efforts would be like a dog chasing its own tail.

why not grab a couple frags from different people and see if any of those will pulse for you. maybe you will find a strain that does well for you.

if your in the area, i could give ya a frag to try.

[golden69_ca]

i work in burnaby that might be a good idea . the only thing that baffulls me is that it was pulsing when i bought it .

[golden69_ca]

last night im watching the tank as normal . found a penut worm then i was checking my stowaway king emerald crab when out of the corner of my eye i noticed the small heads of the xenia pulsing i was so happy and by this morning most of the larger heads are pulsing. i guess these are the trials for a fish tank . have not done any thing differant as of late . oh well i guess ill go with the flow .

thanx for all your help everyone

[Van down by the river]

I know it's a little late to reply, but anyways, here goes

I noticed Nullig mentioned his pulse in the morning. I believe this may be caused by a day to night PH swing. As the Ph is rising in the morning it reaches a threshold that"triggers" the Xenia. Once the PH rises above this target zone, the pulsing stops. Just a theory. It reminded me of a section in Anthony Calfo's book:

"Average seawater has a pH of approximately 8.4 and every attempt should be made to maintain seawater within tenths of a point of this target. Some species are quite sensitive to declining pH. I recall watching colonies of Xenia in my greenhouse, numbering more than one thousand individuals, stop pulsing en masse when the pH of the system fell below 8.3 and promptly resume pulsing when I corrected it. I do not mean to say that the pulsing of Xenia is only related to pH levels because I do not believe that to be true. However, the imposed stress of a depressed pH is certainly one catalyst that appointed the cessation of pulsing Xenia. It was quite a sight to see and very predictable as I ran digital pH meters on Xenia grow out systems that would practically announce the event with an audible alarm when the pH fell to a low point on the program."- Anthony Calfo

If your Xenia cease again in the future it would be interesting to see the results of numerous pH tests through out the day/night to see the correlation.
Anyways, with any luck it was just a one time thing.

[Bob I]

This is not related to pulsing directly, but may still be interesting. Due to the weedy nature of some Xenias, I don't want a lot of it in my main tank. I thought, however, it would be nice in my nano. So I had three small pieces in there. The 10 gallon nano became the temporary home for an LTA. There are some zoos, blue mushrooms, and cabbage coral in the tank and all do fine. I noted, however, that the smaller pieces of Xenia died very soon after the introduction of the LTA . The biggest piece was still alive, but its tentacles looked as if they had been burned off. I moved that piece back to my main tank, and it recovered. I am thinking that the LTA released something into the tank, because it was not in direct contact with the Xenia.