Zoanthid eating Asterina Starfish

[hackman72]

After several years of having a happy tank, the Asterina stars have taken a liking to my zoa colonies. I've never had a problem before until just recently. I don't know exactly what caused them to start eating them but here are some pics of the Asterinas on the frags themselves and the damage they can do in a short amount of time. And, yes, I added a Harlquin shrimp today.

There is an Asterina at the base of the plug...

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Another one on the plug in the center of the picture...

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This rock was completely covered with well over 100 polyps...

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A bad picture of dead/dying polyps...

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My Tubs Blue with a line from the bottom to the point where I pulled the star off of it...

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[ricksconnected]

wow. i didnt know these guys could work that fast.
while we were out having shrimp and crawfish today, they were home having zoas. yeah but theirs werent cajun spiced.

 

[hackman72]

I'd been wondering what had been happening to my colonies over the last little while. After seeing them on there I finally did figure it out...and the crawfish didn't make it either...lol.

 

[brisco15]

how do you get rid of them?

 

[drnecropolis]

Welcome to my nightmare.. To make it even worse, I'm pretty sure I just noticed an infestation of pyramid snails..

 

[ricksconnected]

i knew they wouldnt. reheated craws arent very good anyways.
man that stuff was the bomb. i knew while we were waiting you were getting stressed lol. long wait indeed. dang good food tailgate style.
thats as busy as i ever seen that place. ALL walks of life standing in line too. man that was good wasnt it?

 

[hackman72]

Brisco15;477038 wrote: how do you get rid of them?

A Harlequin Shrimp is really the only effective way of controlling them. Erradication is next to impossible. Plus, hand pick them whenever I see them. I've had them for years with no problems and then all of a sudden...

 

[justindville1987]

i have a ton of those in my tank and just started having a problem with my zoas. i think i will have my hands full tanking them all out of my tank. thanks for the info.

 

[hackman72]

DrNecropolis;477039 wrote: Welcome to my nightmare.. To make it even worse, I'm pretty sure I just noticed an infestation of pyramid snails..

man that's lik a double wammy

ricksconnected;477043 wrote: i knew they wouldnt. reheated craws arent very good anyways.
man that stuff was the bomb. i knew while we were waiting you were getting stressed lol. long wait indeed. dang good food tailgate style.
thats as busy as i ever seen that place. ALL walks of life standing in line too. man that was good wasnt it?

so we got SNS after the meetings and the seafood place after Keen Reef..

 

[brisco15]

Are the harlequins ok with other shrimp such as peppermint, fire, and scarlet cleaner?

 

[kirru]

Hackman, if i get some zoa eating ones I am coming after your shrimp lol I got the safe ones for now.. I'd dread having my zoas wiped out cuz of those little buggers

 

[kirru]

Brisco15;477054 wrote: Are the harlequins ok with other shrimp such as peppermint, fire, and scarlet cleaner?

yuppers, they eat starfish only so once the starfish pop is gone... or close to it... you have to supplement them by feeding starfish

 

[hackman72]

Brisco15;477054 wrote: Are the harlequins ok with other shrimp such as peppermint, fire, and scarlet cleaner?

Yes they are. Their diet consists only of starfish.

Kirru;477056 wrote: Hackman, if i get some zoa eating ones I am coming after your shrimp lol I got the safe ones for now.. I'd dread having my zoas wiped out cuz of those little buggers

This is one of those "be careful what you wish for you just might get it" deals...lol. I aways thought harley's were really pretty but didn't want to buy "feeder" starfish for it. Wound up getting one the hard way.

 

[ricksconnected]

Hackman72;477052 wrote: so we got SNS after the meetings and the seafood place after Keen Reef..

kirsten said that there had better not be a empty seat at the table this tue night at SNS. i wonder what she means????

 

[smoothie]

Yours have some odd colors. Are the ones infesting your tanks and munching on zoas all the same?

 

[kirru]

Hackman72;477059 wrote: This is one of those "be careful what you wish for you just might get it" deals...lol. I aways thought harley's were really pretty but didn't want to buy "feeder" starfish for it. Wound up getting one the hard way.

Dont tell me that... I'm scared now... especially.. hopefully, starting a zao garden tank with a pair of mated tru perc (i believe they are tru percs)

 

[brisco15]

Yeah i had one way back had to buy it chocolate chip stars to eat.So i guess it makes sense they would eat these if there was nothing left. I havent had any problems that i know of yet with them but this horror story will have me buying a harlequin this week.

 

[jdabs]

Hopefully the harlequin will do it's job. Mine has really done a great job keeping them under control in my tank. They are not gone by any means but that's good cause he always has something to eat.

 

[hackman72]

Smoothie;477062 wrote: Yours have some odd colors. Are the ones infesting your tanks and munching on zoas all the same?

There are 3 or 4 different types in my tank. I ran into Dave (Acroholic) today and he'd said that the ones he'd heard from others that eat zoa's had a blue color to them...same as these do. I wanted to try and get a few pics posted (despite my lack of camera skeelz) for others to get a good look at them. Some of them have a gray back and most of them are white. They tend to stayin the rocks and on the glass. Only these little blue back ones have started to venture onto the fragrack and this has just started happening.

 

[hackman72]

Kirru;477063 wrote: Dont tell me that... I'm scared now... especially.. hopefully, starting a zao garden tank with a pair of mated tru perc (i believe they are tru percs)

I actually bought more zoa frags today as I was buying the Harley to have a zoa garden myself. I'm going to start it completely with base/dead rock and set up a bare bottom quarantine for the zoa's to try and have zero hitchhikers make it into the zoa garden.