[djskott]

Hey everyone curious what you feed Xenia? or is this a Photosyth Coral?

thanks
DJ Skott

[eses]

After doing many searches on Xenia, on this forum, and also on many of the other marine forums, I've found the general consensus is that they are a filter feeder, but primarily just live off of light and nutrients in the water. Most of the people I've also seen which have good luck with the Xenia also have fish in the tank, and tend to feed on the heavy side.

I've had it recommended to me, if I don't feed my fish (or have fish) to add microvert to the tank, as well as iodine..but if your doing regular water changes the iodine is pretty much pointless. I have also found them to be very intolerant of nitrate and ammonia.

This is just what I've found while doing research on the forums about them, I've only had mine a short while though and while I'm having good luck, I can't claim full success yet.

Hope this helps some.

[adron420]

I have Xenia over running my tank, as you will soon I feed my tank golden pearls twice a week, and Im one of those heavy feeder types as well. I also add lugols strong iodine twice a week, and my Xenia growth is directly attributed to that, at least IMO The more light you give them the better so they depend on phtosynthesis, but like eses said I think they suck a lot of nutrients out of the water as well. HTH

[SurfsUP]

I never fed my xenia anything. They still grow like mad and I just toss the extras once a month into the toilet. Below is a recent pic and all that was from just one stalk that I put there about a year ago.

[Poseidon]

I've had Fantastic Luck w/ Xenia LOTS of light and it Grows like a weed... I have a Phazer IV with Power Compacts and in a little over a year my original 3 small stalks have propagated into 18-20 very large thriving pieces. I too thin out my Xenia but I give it to my LFS the owner is a friend of mine and in a small market like ours he needs all the support he can get. So by me donating Xenia he can make a little profit and keep the doors open and hopefully get more people hooked on the Hobby.......

[fishfarmer]

I treat my xenia as if it was a macroalgae, havest monthly. I have strong lighting, feed my tank a varied diet(heavily), dose kalk,reefbuilder, and do a 10 % WC bimonthly. I grow it faster than my LFS can sell it. I have X. elongata and X. umbellata.

[David]

Yea, a weed. If I didn't constantly cull it out it would definately overrun tank. Fortunately I am able to capitalize on this since my lfs will take all I can grow for credit. Funny thing though, it's not all that consistent. Sometimes I pull out a bucketful every few weeks for months and then suddenly there is there is this lull, just sort of sits there for a while, and then bam... grows like crazy. As for feeding I have heard/read everything from strictly photosynthetic to moderate filter feeder to uncontrollable detritus consuming monster. My lfs claims customer has reef tank with xenia sump instead of skimmer. Personally I think it could work! In fact, I plan on trying it for FO system I am setting up.

[djskott]

interesting,
So this coral is either Photosynth, or just a Nutriant filter feeder,
Thats pretty cool,
My Xenia has pretty muched open'd up fully and its "Hands" will randomly close and re-open, pretty cool to watch..

we'll see how this one works out =)
take care
skott