Perhaps it is not to be in my tank. Maybe my temperature, 78deg F, is too high. Perhaps it likes a slightly different salinity or different lighting. Who knows? This is supposed to be an easy beginner's coral but I have not been able to get it to thrive. Even in failure I'm amazed at what this Xenia has done. What other animal shrinks and shrivels away to nothing? Animals, in general,grow throughout their lives until they reach their final size and then die. This thing has shrunk down to the point where it is about to disappear. It still has the little coral polyps but they are tiny. How has it done this? Can you imagine an ill human shrinking away to oblivion? It just doesn't happen. Perhaps it would if we didn't have skeletons.
I do love the look of a pulsing colony of Xenia. I walked into Beyond the Reef on Thursday and they have a massive colony of white Pom-Pom Xenia pulsing away in their display tank. It is amazing and hypnotizing to watch. They did have some frags for sale so I bought one. See the picture below. Maybe I'll have better luck with this variety. It is pulsing in my tank albeit a little slower than I would like. Perhaps it too will shrink away to nothing. If it does, I'll give up on Xenia. At least for a while.
