Acro that got stung by xenia

Fishko · Oct 1, 2020

I had an acro that got stung my some xenia a few weeks ago. Will it recover or will it take a long time. All my other sps and are happy and growing getting .2dkh a day in my 29g. Dosing 5ml of all for reef a day. This was my first acro i got for 5 dollars. What should i do for it to recover?

Fishko · Oct 1, 2020

For those wondering my params are 8.2 dkh, 440 calc 1350 mag sal 1.026, phos .09 nitrate 3ppm and ph hovers around 8.3-8.5

ScottR · Oct 1, 2020

I wouldn’t blame the xenia as they don’t contain nematocysts (stinging cells). They also don’t release chemicals in the water that I’m aware of. It probably grew over it, irritated and shaded it.

Fishko · Oct 1, 2020

ScottR said:
I wouldn’t blame the xenia as they don’t contain nematocysts (stinging cells). They also don’t release chemicals in the water that I’m aware of. It probably grew over it, irritated and shaded it.

I thought they had toxins like other soft corals do, im slowly removing it nevertheless, but it should be able to recover right?

ScottR · Oct 1, 2020

Fishko said:
I thought they had toxins like other soft corals do, im slowly removing it nevertheless, but it should be able to recover right?

They may contain toxins but not sure I would point my finger at that. The tissue looks healthy. But the frag disk looks pretty new. Is it newly added to your system?

Fishko · Oct 1, 2020

ScottR said:
They may contain toxins but not sure I would point my finger at that. The tissue looks healthy. But the frag disk looks pretty new. Is it newly added to your system?

No i had it for a few months, the plug just never got covered in algae, it has some coralline growing on the other side, it was beginning to encrust and then receded a bit. I think its a purple bonsaii.

ScottR · Oct 1, 2020

Apparently xenia do contain toxins that can harm nearby corals. I’d definitely isolate either one. Pull the acro and scrape the xenia off. But to be honest, I’ve seen xenia hugging around many types of corals with no problem.

Fishko · Oct 1, 2020

ScottR said:
Apparently xenia do contain toxins that can harm nearby corals. I’d definitely isolate either one. Pull the acro and scrape the xenia off. But to be honest, I’ve seen xenia hugging around many types of corals with no problem.

Ya the xenia is no longer touching the acro, i am slowly removing it. I have recently fixed my params so hopefully it does well, thanks!

Fishko · Oct 1, 2020

Could it possibly be stn or burnt tips?

ScottR · Oct 1, 2020

Fishko said:
Ya the xenia is no longer touching the acro, i am slowly removing it. I have recently fixed my params so hopefully it does well, thanks!

I struggled with xenia for the longest time. New colonies every week. They were covering acros, LPS and everything. Surprisingly it didn’t kill anything. But took me weeks of cleaning it out. Finally had to restart.