little white star fish eating zoas?

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DaveG99

I have caught a a small white star fish on top of my zoas a couple times. I have lots of these little white star fish and I have never had a problem until now. I am not sure if they are eating the zoas or just making them retract when they get on top of them. Either way both times I pushed the star fish off with my finger. Are there any star fish that eat zoas?
 
Yep... asterinas will irritate and some will prey upon them just as they will on corals. If you have many in the colony or frag you can do a short RO/DI dip to kill them but chances are you have more in the tank. If they really are a problme after removing that one, consider a Harlequin Shrimp.
 
They are a pain and eat SPS too.
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Check out http://www.garf.org/

Look on the left for Aquarium PestsSPS eating starfish ]and see if it is the same ones. They ate my colony of Pocillopora. :cry:
Just like you saw them on your zoas, so I use to find oneon my coral and that area use to get white, eaten by these cute monsters.
 
The jury is out on whether these guys actually eat a healthy coral, or if they're like bristleworms, attacking a dying coral.
 
@Ashlar wrote:
The jury is out on whether these guys actually eat a healthy coral said:
While there is no scientific 'research' and documentation.... There is ample reefer observed evidence certain brands of them do.

I've had them plow down a section of a zoa colony that was perfectly healthy myself. I've not had experience with the coral variety as of yet however.
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my zoas are definetly not dying by any means. So a harlrquin shrimp will eat these? I thought they ate the chocolate chip star fish
 
Harlequins eat the tube feet of all starfish. Many folks purchase chocolate chip starfish to feed them once they're free of asterinas.
 
@DaveG99 wrote:
my zoas are definetly not dying by any means. So a harlrquin shrimp will eat these? I thought they ate the chocolate chip star fish said:
That's good then, they are just irritating them. If this is an occasional thing, I wouldn't worry about. Only if they were chowing them down would I eliminate them with the shrimp or if their numbers exploded and they became an problem elsewhere.
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There ARE species that eat corals, but they are rare compared to those that are harmless.

They WILL eat dying or stressed corals, often loooong before we have a clue there is a problem.

GARF's condemnation of all of these is unwarranted. You can not easily identify these species, even seastar experts can not easily identify them and they remain one of the biggest trash can genera in the sea star class. BTW, I sent that GARF link to a seastar expert (this is someone who researches seastars as a profession) and he questioned it.

So you must keep an eye on them, and if you are wise, and see a coral dying...you will investigate all options. THere was a guy on another board who was convinced it was the stars eating a Monitpora...was about to go nuts on them...and finally looked hard enough to find the nudibranchs.

So what is questionable is if you have a SINGLE coral that is being eaten when you have others.

I do recommend not just throwing corals in your tank, and taking reasonable measures to dip or otherwise inspect your frags. This is just plain smart.

But I do not recommend overreacting to any sign of an Asterina and going crazy to remove them. If they are cruising over rocks and glasswork, it is unlikely they are predators of corals. They don't "become" predatory on corals, and they don't wander aimlessly until they find one. There are predatory species, but they are quite rare all in all. Know that zoanthids often accumulate stuff between them, and so it is something to eat. If you see your zoanthids struggling, then do a thorough inspection and assessment as to why and what you are seeing.

So watch, but like MANY other hitch hikers that have unwarranted bad raps, they are frequently harmless.

Before buying a specialized predator like harlequin shrimp, please have a game plan on how you will keep them long term. Prepare to buy and keep seastars to feed them, and I would recommend researching "ecologically friendly" ways of doing this (eg sustaining a community iof Asterina in a sump; freezing and using pieces of something like a Linckia - to make the most of them; keep and harvest arms off chocolate chip stars..).

But, IME, many many many people have these stars, and in most cases, there are no issues with them at all.
 
Well I have cought them on GSP as well. The closer I look the more of them I notice. I plan on getting rid of them here pretty soon.
 
IMO, if you have a lot of them, you should assess the nutrient load on the tank. They "bloom" in response to available food. IMO, treat the disease, not just the symptom.
 
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