Xenia Warrior Princess

Because it tends to open and close its polyps Xenia is a great coral to sit back and watch. The downside of it is that it spreads quite rapidly, almost like a weed. I purchased a single stalk of this Xenia back in April of 2007. It was tiny and came on a shell.

From Paul's Reef

It split not too long after I got it. Once of the split stalks ended up growing on a piece of rubble rock that kept falling off the ledge it was on. I ended up finding a nice spot for it on the other side of my tank. So now I have two colonies growing and spreading.

The colony on the left side seems to be spreading faster than the colony on the right side. Also, the Xenia on the right side is growing taller than the Xenia on the left. This is probably due to differences in current between the two sides of the tank.

The video below shows the Xenia in action. On the right side there are two stalks that have closed up tightly. They will do this from time to time and I have no idea why. They will will do this when I perform a water change probably because of the additional debris that gets stirred up.