20141225 Snow onyx clownfish hosting anemone

It's a snow-less Christmas here in Wisconsin this year- pretty sad. So in Christmas spirit I am posting a video of my "snow onyx" hybrid clownfish with her anemone. My wife got me a waterproof case for my iPhone so after testing it out to make sure it was no leak, this was one of the first videos I took!

20141130 Colored Bubble Tip Anenome

I have purchased this colored bubble tip anemone during the Aquatic experience in Chicago a few weeks ago. It has now successfully acclimated to the 180 and is doing well.

Neon Pink bubble tip anemone (left)

And also an update on one of the corners of the 180 Gallon tank.

Frag time!!

It been a long while since I fragged anything, last week one of the local pet stores in town- Animart in madison, WI was giving away some of their never used fixtures for free. So I took a couple coralife power compact 130w lights to replace what I had on the mantis tank.

For some odd reason the green star polyps just dont do very well in my 92 corner reef while most other sps and lps as well as soft corals are thriving. So before the entire colony comes to non-existence, I decided to frag it and attempt to revive the colony in my mantis tank.

I then also fragged some soft corals, mostly pumping xenia and Kenyan tree, they grow like weed.

Intriguing Pulsing Xenia

The Pulsing Xenia (Heteroxenia sp.) is a mystery in the captive reef community.
I had a previous experience just like many others have had:
Got a small Xenia, watch it grow, watch it spread like weed, and then they all disappear within weeks for no apparent reason.
I was visiting a friend and he was selling some of these small pulsing frags (the ones he had was very very energetic and robust, sometimes you do encounters "lethargic" xenia). I wasn't planning on getting them but my wife was very intrigued and find them amazing to watch so I got a small colony.(below)

pulsing xenia

I am honestly not expecting much out of this thing since I had a previous experience similar to many. It's been about a month now and there seems to be no sign of slowing down in these critters' pulsing and also no shrinking of their polyp extension.

The common opinion about keeping them healthy is:

Light: Strong to medium light (T5 or PC is good enough, you might want to move them to the side and bottom if you are using MH like me)

Flow: Medium. Your current need to be strong enough to bring water and food to it, but not too strong to cause any flesh damage.

Water Quality: From my understanding, not too clean. As a matter of fact, the pulsing movement can logically be their act of "capturing" planktonic food from the water current (though not scientifically proven), but it seems that everyone who keeps their water "too clean" has problem encouraging growth and proper polyp extension.

Lastly, as you can find online, I too have read mixed opinion on the maintenance of this unique creature and have personally experienced various results in various conditions. Fortunately they are not too expensive to come by and are mostly aquacultured. You will definitely have better luck in hardier specimen home cultured and also save some $$.

Lastly, due to the speed they can grow and spread and the level of ease to care for, I honestly don't think anyone should pay more than $15 for a colony of the size shown in the photo above, if you are paying more than that, you are being overcharged.