No more xenia! (i hope)

[bprewit]

Well I think I finally have my xenia infestation licked and the last three rocks that are covered leave for lfs this afternoon. I always wanted the xenia and man this stuff pulsed like mad but holy crap it spreads really bad! I am also trading in a pagoda because it too grew like mad and wow it takes up alot of space and I pulled two more little toadstool leathers from back behind the rocks today. The montipora I have grows ever so slowly yet everything else tries to take over. Around six months ago I got a nice little toadstool leather that now has grown into 3 large heads with the biggest maybe 10-12" across. It is awesome looking but sure makes for lots of shade for those who live under him. How is the toadstool spreading like that I wonder? I never heard of them dropping babies so it has me stumped but it makes for good trade-in's at lfs.

[sunvsat]

I was under the impression that there weren't any LFS's in the Outback of Texas otherwise known as Midland ???? :P

[GaryP]

Give a toadstool enough calcium and alkalinity and light and it will grow fast. I just took out the 24" toadstool out of my 75 gal. It took up half the tank.

[GaryP]

Just out of curiousity, what makes you think you are Xenia free? I remove a butter tub of the stuff from my tank every couple of weeks and it just keeps coming back. I call it "Aquarium Kudzu." All it takes is a few cells left behind and it will grow back. Also when you remove Xenia, you always end up with little pieces of tissue floating around that end up settling somewhere and starting new colonies. You really have to stay on top of it to get it out, or at least trained. I'm actually have a bigger problem with clove polyps. They are even harder to remove because their runners grow through the crevices of the LR. If anyone wants some, come on over and we will have a polyp picking party. There is a nudibranch that eats clove polyps but good luck trying to get one.

[bprewit]

the only reason I think I may have gotten rid of it all is I have been trading LR that it is growing on back to lfs so no cutting or pruning but instead removing the entire rock the colony is growing on.

[GaryP]

OK, That'll work! I wish I could trade my rock out, but there is a little detail of a few thousand dollars worth of SPS, LPS, and other softies on the same rock, not to mention the grief of tearing my tank apart.