What kills Xeina?

[denvig]

Has anyone had luck killing this stuff in the tank? I have injected vinegar straight into the stalk and it still survived. I injected a thick paste of Kalk and it survived. Will Joe?s juice kill it? I have it on some rocks that I don?t want it on and they can?t be taken out of the tank.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Dennis,

Sometimes the long spined blue-eyed Diadema urchins will eat it. I had two that took to it and I had to remove...I kind of like Xenia.

 

[nunofs]

I had some Xenia on a separate pile of rock, thinking I could contain it there, but it still found its way to the other side of the tank... so I decided to remove it. I took a sharp knife and cut the xenia off the rock as close as possible to the rock, actually scraping the surface of the rock off... that still left some tiny bits attached to the rock, so I covered those parts with pieces of rubble, reef plugs or a bit of aquamend epoxy to prevent them from getting light. That worked for me... the epoxy works particularly well

Nuno

 

[Bidadari]

I have success scraping it off the LR, you just have to make sure there is not bits and pieces of xenia tissue left on the LR.

 

[Aqua Addict]

I had a pakastani Butterfly in the store that was eating the stuff up.... Not to sure if all of them eat it but that one sure did...

Mike

 

[wrassefan]

pull the rock out and fresh water soak for a few days/wk is the only thing I found effective....then again, a small patch regrew after 6mo. of being put back in

 

[chuck]

My tank seems to kill it. Mauro gave me some the day, and I am pretty sure it doesn't look too happy

 

[Member No. 1]

.45 Acp?

 

[starrfish]

I agree with the knife scraping technique. You might have to do it a few times, but it eventually goes away. Scrape the rock really hard with the knife.

 

[joefitz]

I've been shocked that after remove most of the Xenia from my tank it has not shown any regrowth in the areas I removed it. I 'peeled' mine off... I was able to use my fingernail to get under the base of it and then I could carefully peel the whole thing off the rock...it was so easy I was shocked because my previous attempts were not so lucky. My Xenia was pretty dense so the stalks often shared the same feet and so once I got under any portion of one of the stocks I could peel off most of what was on that rock in one feel swoop.

It has been at least 3-4 weeks since my first harvesting and while a lot of Xenia has grown, it hasn't been on the rocks it used to be on, it has been from the stalks I had left in the tank.

 

[tucc185]

There is a really cool nudibranch that eats xenia, and looks exactly like a xenia polyp. I doubt if you could get one, as there's not really a market for it. (most people would be more interested in buying xenia than buying something to eat it). I do agree with Joefitz though, peeling tends to work really well if you're careful, and depending on what growth form the Xenia takes in your tank (if it stalks, its easier to peel it off without any leftover tissue).

 

[Greg Hiller]

FWIW, believe it or not either my blonde Naso, or my Sohol tang seem to have taken a liking to it. These fish get VERY big though. 180 gallon or large is required long term with them.

 

[Piscevore]

I tried cleaning one particular rock with lime juice and calk paste in the tank, with poor results, so i took the rock out, and just irrigated the section with a thick think kalk slurry. No dice.

I pulled the rock later on down the road and used a propane torch. No more Xenia, but the stick is hardly worth doing it. I'd rather have Xenia