Pom-pom xenia

Care at a glance

Pom-pom xenia looks a lot like the better-known pulsing xenia, but with one clear difference: where that species opens and closes its polyps rhythmically, heteroxenia's polyps stay open and simply sway back and forth in the current, without that pumping motion.

Otherwise it shares its family's traits: it grows fast, needs no feeding and spreads readily, so give it an isolated spot so it doesn't creep over its neighbours. Like pulsing xenia, it can also crash suddenly and for no obvious reason — a known phenomenon in these corals that's often linked to water that's too clean or too unstable.

Related species

• Blue xenia (cespitularia)Cespitularia sp.
• Pulsing xeniaXenia sp.
• Duncan coralDuncanopsammia axifuga
• Leather coralSarcophyton sp.
• Hammer coralEuphyllia ancora
• Mushroom coralDiscosoma sp.