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Differentiating the "Xenias"


yikai
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Xenias and other similar looking corals are one of the most poorly identified corals. Many species of corals look similar and most people just lump them together and call them "xenias". This thread should help future IDs and clear the air!

Firstly, the genus Xenia, belongs to the higher family, xeniidae.

Xenias are famed for their pulsating abilities. 5 petaled polyps found on stalks that congregate only at the apex of a stem. Xenias have tall or short stems which differentiates them from others in the family.

Consists of a few species, the most famous being Xenia elongata, and xenia umbellata (fastest pulsing and largest polyped of all the xenias)

here's a close up view of polyps belonging to X. umbellata. Notice the large clove like polyps!

2nd picture shows xenia elongata with typical appearance. 5-petaled polyps, on stalks, attached to a large central stem.

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Next in the family, anthelias. Known as waving hands

Looks very similar to xenias and one of the most often confused out of all. Grows in mats, with no stems. Long polyps attached to a creeping mat, rather similar to star polyps. Polyps are non-retractile or semi-retractible. Most species do not pulse or pulse by curling, not in the open-close fashion.

notice the creeping fashion in which it grows, not propt up by stems

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Good luck IDing them all. ID the white Fiji one for me? :evil:

who's IDing them all? Taxonomists have never Identified all xenia species. Most are labelled as Xenia.sp and so is your fiji one.

or, it could be one of these. When you're free, go read up on them. Your fiji xenia is bound to be in one of these.

X. mucosa,

X. multipinnata,

X. stellafera,

Xenia alcyonacea

Xenia farauensis

Xenia arabica

Xenia benayahui

Xenia biseriata

Xenia crassa

Xenia aff. distorta

Xenia faraunensis

Xenia hicksoni

Xenia impulsatilla

Xenia kuekanthali

Xenia mayi

Xenia macrospiculata

Xenia membranacea

Xenia novaecaledoniae

Xenia obscuronata

Xenia verseveldti

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Cespitularias. Grows on thick tall stalks with polyps branching from apical stems and all over the bottom. Used to own a 3ft colony of this which melted down to less than half :(

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There are many other genus like heteroxenia which are not commonly available, so i will skip them.

Pipe organ coral. NOT a xenia and not even related to xenia. These 5-petaled polyp soft corals grow in tubes which are hard and calcareous.

Notice the second cross sectional view showing the "tubes"

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Thanks for the ID topic, able to also share which species are hardy? i know Cespitularias and Pipe organ coral are easy to take care. Never had any luck with clove, waving hands and xenia.

Not sure if its true that they need high nutrient waters

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lemon, i always wondered how anyone can actually remember all these scientific names! APparently you can! haha.. Goodjob.

Btw, can you help me ID this coral in blue?? (sorry for the blur pix)

Is this xenia? clove? or wth is that?? and it grows very fast! I think it's got 8 polyps though... so not xenia??

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decommissioned 2.5x2x2

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lemon, i always wondered how anyone can actually remember all these scientific names! APparently you can! haha.. Goodjob.

Btw, can you help me ID this coral in blue?? (sorry for the blur pix)

Is this xenia? clove? or wth is that?? and it grows very fast!

post-13920-12754078622517_thumb.jpg

This is the common blue clove if not wrong... Very blue leh... Nice!!

Member of:

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lemon, i always wondered how anyone can actually remember all these scientific names! APparently you can! haha.. Goodjob.

Btw, can you help me ID this coral in blue?? (sorry for the blur pix)

Is this xenia? clove? or wth is that?? and it grows very fast! I think it's got 8 polyps though... so not xenia??

post-13920-12754078622517_thumb.jpg

clavularia sp. one of the many clove corals that do not have a species name, so it's just labelled as clavularia sp.

yes this is the tiny polyped blue kind. they have the potential to be VERY blue like yours! and grows very quickly

as long as they are not attached by long stalks to the apex of a large central stem, they are not xenias. that's one of the ways to ID them.

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thanks Terryz/Lemon.

indeed it's tiny and very blue... i'm trying to place the rock near to a base rock and hope it spreads there.

:)

it'll be nice to have base rocks filled with blue cloves.

came as hitchhikers on that rhodactics rock. (almost died during the rescape)

decommissioned 2.5x2x2

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Your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open.

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thanks Terryz/Lemon.

indeed it's tiny and very blue... i'm trying to place the rock near to a base rock and hope it spreads there.

:)

it'll be nice to have base rocks filled with blue cloves.

came as hitchhikers on that rhodactics rock. (almost died during the rescape)

these can be bought during indo shipments by the rocks. but it's always more fun to grow them from frags! especially from HITCHHIKER frags!

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spot on! i am now loving frags a lot, coz can see growth! it came with probably 5polyps (barely visible)... now probably a small patch of 50c coin size.

But not spreading to another rock yet... hoping... hoping.. dunno if i should frag it though, just dun wanna "fix it when it's not broken".

decommissioned 2.5x2x2

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Your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open.

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side track abit.

can anyone advice how come my Xenia does not pulse and extend very skinny. looks a world of different when i saw it at the LFS.

been inside my tank for about 1 month.

brown 1 isit?

xenia elongata.

these guys pulse when the pH is 8.2 and above. Low pH results in poor pulsing. Also do note that sometimes they just stop pulsing for no reason. In fact, why xenia pulse is unkown to science. If you find out why maybe you could get a nobel prize :P Many scientist hypothesize that they pulse for water exchange, waste, etc.

Here are the criteria for pulsing.

- low flow. (They pulse better in lower flow. And their pulsing is best observed in low flow, however, xenia do pulse in high flow too)

- pH of >8.2 any lower and your xenia might not pulse.

If all of the above conditions are met, it just means your xenia doesn't want to pulse and it's perfectly normal. Like i said, they do stop pulsing but that does not mean they are dying.

Secondly, if your xenia is growing too long and thin, it means the flow might be too strong or there isn't enough light. Also do bear in mind that if your species is xenia elongata, the brown one, they tend to grow like this. Hence their scientific name, elongata = long, elongated (in latin)

hope this helps.

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yup. it brown in colour. but when i saw it at the LFS, it seem to swell abit. after bring back, honestly i hardly recognise it. it look world of different from the LFS. i kind of wonder why i bought that.

xenia elongata tends to do that. many reefers report different success stories with them.

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