Pulsing xenia

Care at a glance

Xenia is the coral that pulses: its polyps open and close in a slow, rhythmic gesture that goes on all day and is easy to keep watching. Why they do it has never been conclusively explained, and not every colony does it with the same enthusiasm.

It is a fast grower that needs no feeding and does well even in tanks with somewhat higher nutrients. That same growth rate is the trap: xenia will run straight over your reef and is hard to get off again. So keep it isolated, on a loose rock or a small island. If it suddenly shrinks and melts away — which xenia sometimes does for no obvious reason — that often points to water that is too clean or too unstable.

Related species

• Leather coralSarcophyton sp.
• Pom-pom xeniaHeteroxenia fuscescens
• Blue xenia (cespitularia)Cespitularia sp.
• Mushroom coralDiscosoma sp.
• Duncan coralDuncanopsammia axifuga
• Blue sympodiumSympodium sp.