Zoa Killer?

[d9sccr]

I have had two zoa frags from the the same LFS and they both ended up dying. Both frags were in different tanks. In one tank, I found Asterina, but have been aware of their presence for about a year. There are other zoa frags in the tank and they are fine. The other tank does not have Asterina that I can find. The only other similiarity is this...thing..It looks like a brittle star, but I do not think it is. This one is white, but on the other frag it was yellow. Any ideas?

[J. Montgomery]

Its a type of worm (whose name escapes me now). The yellow one is probably a "medusa" worm. They harmless.

I've never had a problem with Asterina stars and I have thousands of them and hundreds of zoas.

[MinibowMatt]

Josh, Im not saying your wrong, but there are lots of species of asterina stars. I have had the grey mottled ones, that barely get past 1/2" across and they definetly did eat zoas, and lots of them.

I never believed it myself until I caught them devouring this colony in front of my eyes...





If your seeing them, I wouldnt risk it. Go get a harlequin shrimp and be safe now, instead of sorry later.

[MinibowMatt]

BTW, I saved that colony and is very good now here is a pre-incident pic, I will take a recovery pic later tonight...

[d9sccr]

I'm not sure if it's them or not, but I have taken about 15 out. I still do not think it is them. I only found one on the zoa rock, but it wasn't on the zoas. I firmly believe that it is whatever is coming out of the rock.

[MinibowMatt]

its entirely possible. Good luck with it, I hope you figure it out.

[photobret]

Look out for Nudibranchs, they will camo themselves and look like your zoas, also I have seen snails munching on zoas too. Bumblebee snails sometimes have a taste for zoas. Keep looking and good luck.

[d9sccr]

no nudis and no bumblebees..had nudis before..so I havean idea of what to look for

[ryddo]

Do Harlequin shrimp eat these type of stars? Will they eat a Serpent Starfish as I have 1 in my tank? I am looking for ways to remove these stars and pulling them out manually is getting old already.

[delsol650]

Yes harlequins have been employed by other reefers, but they are specialized feeders, after the asternias are gone the shirmp starves.

[ryddo]

They will have PLENTY to eat before I would need to worry about that! Thanks for the info!

[MinibowMatt]

they do eat the asterinas, and they will eat the serpent..

After they are all gone, you can feed the harlequin a choc. chip star leg every other week.

[delsol650]

Some folks grow a couple of C.C stars in their fuge and harvest them like cows. Cut a foot here , toss it for the harlequins and let the choc heal in the fuge and rotate that stars. Some just chop em up and put them in the freezer.

[swamprat]

The only thing I see in the first picture is a micro brittle star. As far as I know they are reef safe.My tank has hundreds of them. I bought some from Inland Aquatics. Get out the magnifying glass to enjoy them.

[delsol650]

were talking about asterinas

[swamprat]

I understand that most of the talk has been about asterinas. Are there any in the first picture? I do see them in later pics. In the first picture all I see is micro brittle star legs.

[StephNewman]

Looks like a micro brittle star to me as well, don't think they are harmful to zoos. I am having the same problem with my zoos disappearing and can't figure out what it is.

[fraggin]

i'd check after lights out for a enucnid worm (sp)
i had a large one eating my palys at night

[phishy2]

I just found a asterina completely covering a completly healthy zoa like it was trying to suck it out or something, looked exacly like the ones eatting the colony in the picture above. pulled a few more out that looked like they might be moving towards the zoas, dont want to take any chances.

[Rackyrane]

I have witnessed asterinas eating my zoos just like in the picture. They munch a hole in the side of the zoo and munch away. They had cleared a pretty bright pink colony before I figured out what was eating the zoos. They don't seem to like the dull brown ones in my tank though.

[Malenurse]

Be careful about cause and effect. I had a colony with "zoopox." I did the 3 day Furan 2 treatment (no effect on the "pox" lesions) and then placed the colony back in the tank. I noticed large (8-10") bristle worms all over the small colony. The next day, the "pox" were gone. The zoo colony has now fully recovered.

[tmz]

Originally posted by Rackyrane
I have witnessed asterinas eating my zoos just like in the picture. They munch a hole in the side of the zoo and munch away. They had cleared a pretty bright pink colony before I figured out what was eating the zoos. They don't seem to like the dull brown ones in my tank though.

I've had they same experience with the tiny grey topped asterinas.I've also seen my peppermint shrimp pull off whole polys and munch away.

[turbois300]

Oh snap!! I have a bunch of those brownish stars all over the tank. I don't seem to be loosing any Zoas or Palys..... and I can't imagine that my coward of a pepermint shrimp would eat them? Are the brown little stars bad? Some have 3 legs or 5 or 6. they seem to be mostly on the glass but they are on the rocks too... I have a billion of those little serpant stars but I thought they were good too. I'll see if I can get a picture of them up.... I guess I'll be getting a harliquin sometime soon////

[MinibowMatt]

Turbois- re-read the thread. were mainly talking about the grey mottled Asterina's. I have no experience with brown ones.

Serpent stars are ok for corals, bad for some fish.. Are you sure they are serpents, not Brittle's?

[d9sccr]

you mean brittle stars? I don't know for sure..I don't know how to tell the difference between the two. Also, I only saw an arm