New Coral, Pulsing Xenia Shrinking?

[Dave21]

So I added my first piece of coral today, which was a small piece of Pulsing Xenia from my LFS. 

 

I was just wondering if it is normal for the coral to shrink up for a while after being introduced to the tank? The coral looked good and was pulsing at the store, but on the way home it shrank up and started falling over. When I got home I floated it for a bit and it picked back up. I moved it to a container and dipped it in Seachem reef dip for about 15 to 20 minutes per the instructions and drip acclimated to bring the salinity close to my tank before placing it in the tank.

 

The coral has been in the tank for about 4 hours and still hasnt opened up. Is this normal when introducing a new coral? I attached some pictures. 

[WormLicker]

This seems pretty normal, my xenia frag did the same and didn't properly snap for maybe two or three days after I added her. 

[rough eye]

why would you drip acclimate anything after dipping? the dip would have been pretty sudden wouldn't it?

[banasophia]

Normal… it can take some corals a couple days or sometimes even a week or two to open. I don’t drip acclimate corals, just dip, rinse in tank water, then add to tank. May be a good practice with more sensitive corals though. 

[Dave21]

I used the water from the bag to dip and then drip acclimated. I was finding mixed information about how to introduce coral on we sites and YouTube videos, but several articles talked about drip acclimating being recommended. In the future if it is not particularly necessary for beginner type corals I'll just use tank water measured out in a container to dip then introduce to the tank. I noticed the Xenia seemed to relax some after the light went out so I'll see what it looks like tomorrow. 

 

I noticed their was some type of hitchhiker that came off after the light went out. It survived the dip and seems to be moving around but I'm not sure what it is. I moved it out of the tank and snapped a picture. Any idea what this is? 

[banasophia]

14 minutes ago, Dave21 said:

I used the water from the bag to dip and then drip acclimated. I was finding mixed information about how to introduce coral on we sites and YouTube videos, but several articles talked about drip acclimating being recommended. In the future if it is not particularly necessary for beginner type corals I'll just use tank water measured out in a container to dip then introduce to the tank. I noticed the Xenia seemed to relax some after the light went out so I'll see what it looks like tomorrow. 

 

I noticed their was some type of hitchhiker that came off after the light went out. It survived the dip and seems to be moving around but I'm not sure what it is. I moved it out of the tank and snapped a picture. Any idea what this is? 

It wouldn’t be wrong to drip acclimate, just more work than you need to do. 

 

Not sure about the hitchhiker… shape looks kinda like a stomatella snail, but I haven’t seen one with a striped shell like that… hopefully someone else will chime in. 

[Dave21]

Thanks for the all the feed back! This morning it was opened up up and looks like it's doing good. It isnt pumping, but my understanding they do not always pump. 

 

Still not sure about the hitchhiker. I looked up stomatella snails and it doesnt quite look like them. 

[DevilDuck]

1 hour ago, Dave21 said:

Thanks for the all the feed back! This morning it was opened up up and looks like it's doing good. It isnt pumping, but my understanding they do not always pump. 

 

Still not sure about the hitchhiker. I looked up stomatella snails and it doesnt quite look like them. 

Xenia was my first coral. It will take a couple of weeks for it to come around and act normally and start growing. Once it gets acclimated it will take off and you'll have to prune it regularly. Xenia also pumps more with less flow.  

[sirrtuan@yahoo.com]

I agreed with @DevilDuck.

give it a week or two for it to acclimate. Try keeping low nutrient otherwise it will take over your tank quickly.

[Dave21]

I don't think it's getting too much flow. I have a nano 565 pump and it is the only powerhead in the tank. The Xenia stalks do blow around slightly but do not seem to be excessive. 

 

And my hope is that it will quickly overtake the left side of my rockwork. I then plan to keep it trimmed back when it tries to cross my top arch to keep it from moving to the middle section. I also had an idea from another thread, about the possibility of placing a bubble coral on the other side of the arch to see if that would discourage the Xenia from spreading across and eliminate the need to trim it back. 

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Dave21 said:

I don't think it's getting too much flow. I have a nano 565 pump and it is the only powerhead in the tank. The Xenia stalks do blow around slightly but do not seem to be excessive. 

 

And my hope is that it will quickly overtake the left side of my rockwork. I then plan to keep it trimmed back when it tries to cross my top arch to keep it from moving to the middle section. I also had an idea from another thread, about the possibility of placing a bubble coral on the other side of the arch to see if that would discourage the Xenia from spreading across and eliminate the need to trim it back. 

I can tell you from experience that xenia like light, they like flow, they like nutrients.

 

Not much controls them besides manually pruning. Even being placed on a separate rock doesn't work as xenia stretches and attaches onto other surfaces.

 

I had tons of xenia, it was growing amongst 2 large bta's, they weren't even effected in the least being up against them. 

 

So when they take off, expect to manually remove some. I did it every few weeks.

 

They do shrink up when first added, when there are changes in the tank, or touched. Its completely normal

[Dave21]

Sounds good, the Xenia seems to have acclimated and are now pulsing like crazy. And it does seem to grow very fast. It's only been in about a week and I noticed tonight new very small arms beginning to form at the stalk. 

 

Also do corals help reduce nitrates? I'm just wondering because my Nitrates were testing 10-20 with an API kit right after adding the Xenia. A few days after adding the Xenia I added 3 other small plugs with different soft coral. I plan to wait a month or two before adding anything else and see how they do, but I tested my Nitrate today and they seem to have been reduced to 5-10. I havent done a water change since the higher test, but performed the test exactly per instructions. So far I've always seemed to get results as expected when testing before and after water changes so I dont think it was an inaccurate test. 

[DevilDuck]

Yes nitrates and phosphates are both consumed by coral. Keep them above 0 or in a testable range to avoid trouble. 

[Dave21]

41 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

Yes nitrates and phosphates are both consumed by coral. Keep them above 0 or in a testable range to avoid trouble. 

I haven't tested my phosphates for about a week and a half or so, but so far they have always test at .25 ppm. 

 

If my Nitrate or Phosphates drop to zero. What is the best way to raise them? And if my water parameters are testing okay, should I reduce the frequency of water changes?