Xenia dying rigbt after acclimation?

[Elijah F]

So I just brought home my first animals for my 6 month old macroalgae dominant tank; 2 slunk clowns, a bluestripe goby, and 3 corals. Two of them, a candy cane and gsp are doing pretty well, and while they're both a bit retracted still, they're clearly alive and reactive. The xenia however seems to be doing terribly. It was pulsing and alive in the store, and I drip acclimated it for a good 30-40 minutes with everything else, but it's looking really rough so far. No pulsing, droopy polyps, loosing a couple polyps and practically melting off it's frag plug. I've literally not even had it for a day yet, and it's already dying.

What the heck could be wrong with it/my tank? Parameters are good and have been stable for a while, dosing nitrates and phosphate on a regular basis, and the other corals seem just fine. I thought xenia was supposed to be this indestructible super-coral, this is honestly just depressing ar this point.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

they are drooping, do you have any flow in the tank? Corals need flow

 

[Elijah F]

they are drooping, do you have any flow in the tank? Corals need flow

Yes, they're in a spot that gets moderate flow. I actually moved them a little higher up to get a bit more flow since they're not pulsing at all

 

[Tired]

Mine looks way worse than that every night. Sometimes it just does that when it's upset.

How long have you had it? Might still be adjusting.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I have a huge colony that I regularly trim back, but I have found that it is sensitive to shipping, even just bagging to/from the store.

Just my experience here:
So when I trim mine back, I grab with tweezers the base where it's attached to the rock, and gently pull off the rock, then I chuck it into another tank to heal and attach naturally to rubble. So I deem this process pretty rough but I don't lose any from this. From here I let it grow and eventually glue the rubble to frag plugs to take to the lfs. I do not acclimate from tank to tank, just plop them in. I'm surprised at the resilience at home, but when I bag them for the lfs, half the time they die once they're in the tanks. Even though I rip them off a rock at home and they heal fine.

I'm assuming it's the bagging they don't like, maybe getting tossed around in transport or the bag touching the xenia is what does it? Not sure but I'm pretty rough with them at home and it grows like weeds.

My colony also likes to randomly drop pieces to float elsewhere and then it attaches and grows new. That's why it's known for being weedy, or invasive.

Included pics of the full colony and babies it's dropped. All this grew from a single frag.

 

[Elijah F]

Mine looks way worse than that every night. Sometimes it just does that when it's upset.

How long have you had it? Might still be adjusting.

Only had it one day, I'm just worried since it seems to have gotten worse since last night. Does yours ever look healthy during the day?

 

[Elijah F]

I have a huge colony that I regularly trim back, but I have found that it is sensitive to shipping, even just bagging to/from the store

I'm assuming it's the bagging they don't like, maybe getting tossed around in transport or the bag touching the xenia is what does it? Not sure but I'm pretty rough with them at home and it grows like weeds

Could be the shipping, though the ride from the store was only around 20 minutes. I'm just perexed since when I saw the frag in the store, it was super healthy, alive and vibrant. Not sure how long it needs to adjust, but I'm certianly hoping it recovers and is able to grow like yours