Xenia Not Opening

[johnnyjtaylor]

Yesterday I bought my first coral(well first except from hitching mushies) its a 'Metallic Green Xenia' ,in the LFS it was open and beautiful and retracted with great speed as soon as the guy picked it out of the tank. Its been in my tank for 24hrs now and only 2 tiny polyps which are on the other side of the rock and not directly joined to the main colony have opened(infact they first opened last night).
Do these things take time to adjust before they extend or have I done something bad. The bag did seem to feel a little cold when I got it home but it was only about half an hour from LFS tank to being floated in mine. I acclimated it with the half a cup every 10 minutes for around an hour and a half before putting it in.

thanks Johnny

 

[SkiFletch]

2 days isn't out of the question. At a week or so I'd begin to be concerned. Remember, Xenia is very hardy so have patience

Got pics?

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

That was quick!!!! I'll take a pic and put it on in a few minutes. Theres also a weird hitch hiker on it!!!

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

The hitch hiker is the thing to the bottom left, looks a bit like a sponge with two 'barnicle mouths'. The open polyps are the blurry green things top left( cant get camera to focus on them~no macro )

 

[SkiFletch]

Btw, that isn't green xenia, those are Green Star Polyps (GSP). My advice still stands, give them a little more time. And perhaps double check your salinity.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Btw, that isn't green xenia, those are Green Star Polyps (GSP). My advice still stands, give them a little more time. And perhaps double check your salinity.

The dirty lying LFS B**tards. I paid £28.99 for that (bet they're cheap usually??)and listened to the guys speech on 'how to I.D a 'real' Green Metallic Xenia and I quote "Its the purple bases that show its a true Metallic Green Xenia" looked like corraline algea to me but you listen to the guy they call "Our reef 'expert' ".
I should go and dip the little twerps head in their coral tank until he turns purple then green !!

However(on a slightly calmer note) it did look really nice in their tank. Why do LFS people always have to BS you they never realise thats the way to lose customers !
My S.G is between 1.024~5 is this OK?

edit~ the purple bit is the stolon yeah? not corraline(another something learned)

 

[SkiFletch]

You are correct, that is the Stolon. It just happens to be the same color as purple coraline algae. They are related to Xenia, but definitely different Genus and Species. From what I gather for a colony that large from an LFS that's a decent price in the UK. Unfortunately sold you by not-so-experts

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Thanks for your help yet again Ski
I'll post a pic if they ever extend

Any ideas about the hitch hiker thing(you can see it really well if you view the pic full size).

edit: the extended polyp count of the very small ones away from the main colony is up to a whopping 4!!

 

[Matty P]

Your S.G is fine

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

After 6 days finally the first sign of life starts to emerge 8)

They're greener in real life!