Propagating Xenia Corals

Early Photo of my Xenia Mother Colony

I purchased this colony of white encrusting pumping xenia in July 1999. It is mounted on a scallop shell. This mounting is fantastic, since the encrusting on the hard smooth surface of the shell allows me to easily cut away sections of the xenia with a razor for propagating.

I have made over 100 successful propagations from this mother colony to date. I have been selling them to local marine stores, where they sell them out in a couple of days. Not all of my attempts were successful though. Xenia is a fast growing coral. Once this coral is established into your tank it will grow very fast and will spread across your substrate and live rock. This Xenia will pulse faster in higher PH, 8.3 and above. Xenia can be propagated by fragmentation in your home marine aquarium quite easily. You can also let the colony grow on it's own onto adjacent rock. Xenia is a great coral to propagate because it grows fast, sells fast (high demand) and it looks great.

Xenia Propagation rock, note the elastic bands

I read quite a few interesting articles on the internet about propagating xenia and other soft corals. Many spoke of the use of cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) in attaching the fragmented xenia to base rock. I thought I would give this procedure a try in my first attempt.

First I found 5 nice pieces of base rock for my propagations. I prepared the rocks by cleaning them in a stream of fresh water and drying them with paper towels. I put a small dab of super glue (zap gel) on the rock where I wanted to mount the xenia. I took 5 small slices of the xenia from the mother colony, As I cut them, I placed them in a bowel of tank water. I then blotted them dry on paper towels. Xenia secrets a film/slime when it is removed from water, so I placed in back in the water to wash aways the slime, and repeated the drying. Once dry, I placed in on the base rock where the super glue was and pressed down for a few seconds. The glue looked like it was holding. I placed the rock in a bowel of tank water for 2 minutes. I then placed the rock in the tank.

The next morning all of the xenia rocks were bare. The glue did not hold the xenia in place at all. Later, I did find some of the frags hidden behind other rocks. Some had attached but were not growing to well for lack of lighting.

The misfortune with the crazy glue sent me back to research. I felt that the glue could not set properly on the ever changing shape of the xenia frag. After more research I decided I would use a polyester webbing I found at "The Rag Shop"

I let the mother colony grow out for another 3 weeks before I felt that it was doing well enough for another cutting. I cut the polyester webbing into narrow strips and had plenty of elastic bands along for anchoring. I fragged the xenia the same way as the last time. I placed the frags on the rocks. Over the frag I placed a thin strand of the webbing. I then anchored the webbing with elastic bands and placed the rocks in the tank.

The next day all of the frags were pumping like crazy!!! After 1 week, I removed the elastic bands and in many cases had to cut away the polyester webbing. The frags had adhered themselves to the rocks quite well. In another week, the growth of these new frags was very noticeable.

I am letting the colony spread onto smooth hard surfaces. I presently keep the mother colony on a piece of acrylic about twice it's size. As the colony spreads, I just scrape it off of the original shell or the acrylic sheet. I have a few acrylic sheets as mother colonies now.

I keep the xenia close to the top of the tanks. This is where they get plenty of light and moderate water circulation. Xenia love the light! They also seem to use up iodine. As a rule, I never add anything to my tank that I don't test for. I do weekly tests, listed below. I have found that the Xenia does use up iodine. I supplement iodine with Lugol's Solution. 1 drop for each 25 gallons per tank per week. Fossa & Nilsen, in "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium" state that "xenia crash" is often caused by a depletion of iodine in the enclosed system. They also mentioned that in Europe, they are experimenting with 24 hour lighting for xenia propagation. I have never tried this but I may in the future.

I run DIY calcium reactors on all my tanks. I see a PH rise from 8.0 at first light to 8.4 at lights out. A reasonable PH swing. I run Custom Sea Life Power Compacts on all my xenia tanks. 10 watts per gallon. 50% 7100K blue, 50% 6700K White

Below are the wavelength charts for CSL power compacts.

LIKE A WEED! That's the way many people describe how their Xenia colony is growing. I have to admit, I feel the same way, except with none of the negative connotations of a "weed". I keep it in check and it helps me pay for my hobby. What more could I ask for.

I now run a separate xenia propagation tank as well as my main display tank. Tank parameters are both the same since I run all of my tanks the same way.

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