starfish eating zoa

N

natas

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Three weeks ago I added 4 different types of zoa to my tank. They were very healthy.Two weeks ago one small colony just disappeared. I noticed a small starfish on the plug but didn't really think much about it. Tonight I caught one of the starfish in the act on my utter chaos. Same type if asterina star fish I saw on the other now gone plug. The pure white asterina don't do this, it's the ones with the dark speckles that do it.

Any suggestions? I literally have hundreds of these starfish. I have been picking them out of the tank but now I am really ticked off. This starfish is now eating some pretty expensive zoas and I just started adding zoas to my tank.
 
I have the same issue. Get a harliquin shrimp. Within two weeks all of the asternia stars should be gone. But after the asternia stars are gone you will have to buy brittle star fish to feed the harliquin shrimp.
 
After I lost several of my higher end zoas to those little devil starfish, I got a harlequin shrimp and I have no problems now.
 
you can also get a chocolate chip star fish and throw it in the sump and just cut a leg off and feed it to the shrimp each week. The leg will regrow so as long as you can keep him alive you can keep the shrimp alive.
 
fyi to everyone here. I got a harlequin shrimp last week. He has been eating the starfish to the point where I rarely see them now. I caught him in action the other day and he seriously had three of them at once. Very efficient at eating them. I plan to keep him in the tank 2-3 months and offer him up to a member that may need him.
 
I have to disagree with you on this. I saw these starfish eating healthy zoa, heck the last colony they went after were sprouting new polyps left and right. Luckily I caught the starfish in the act and stopped it before it did any major damage.
 
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