Operation Asterina wipe out

[ficklefins]

I had noticed some of my zoas vanishing from time to time and I had no idea why. Fish weren't doing it, shrimp had no interest, and no sweeper coral could reach them.

Well today I found the asnwer! An Asterina starfish perched right on top of an empty zoa frag. This little monster had eaten 4 polyps overnight and it only had three legs left! That being said, operation Asterina wipe out is starting. Everytime I see one of these monsters, good or bad, they are getting pulled out of the tank for a nice heat bath over my lights.

I'll get some pics after work today. The guilty starfish just looks like your normal run of mill Asterina so pics may not be needed.

 

[Smarsh]

I am in the process of this as well. Nasty little things. I think I have almost all of mine gone now, thank goodness.

Sandy

 

[Raptor]

I have tons of of those little stars. I have never seen them eating my zoa's.
It was probably eating the die off. Tangs will do that too. If you have a tang i would think him first. ESP a hippo tang. If any zoa's take a dive in health that hippo will take them out fast.

 

[CherryCorals]

I feel that Asterina's do snack on zoa's and paly's from time to time. I removed them manually as well and just recently added a Harlequin to keep them in check.

 

[Smarsh]

nope, no tangs in my tank, only a six line wrasse. I can't tell you how many I have pulled off one of my huge colonies of pink palys. They eat the skirts first, then they go after the rest. This colony was healthy before the stars got it. They also ate the skirt off one of my blue zoa's.

 

[Raptor]

I have yet to see an asterina on a healthy zoa or paly. Doesnt mean i am right, Just never seen one.
Anybody have any pics?

 

[ficklefins]

This was the second healthy colony wiped out. When I saw the star sitting on top of my last frag I knew I had found the guilty party.

 

[Raptor]

That star means nothing IMO. How do you know that the frag didnt just detatch and is in your liverock?
Like i said i have tons and i dont lose zoa's and palys just like that.

 

[Smarsh]

I will try to get a picture if another pops up. I do know that these are healthy because the ones that I saved from the star are opened up with only a few little tentacles where the skirt used to be or no skirt at all (looks pretty silly).

BTW does anyone know if the skirt will grow back? If not, then I will let you know if it does.

Sandy

 

[TyreeUM]

yeah I have those guys in my tank I throw them out whenever I see one that is easy to grab, but I too have never seen them eating anything important-I just have heard from other people that they have eaten their corals. I would love to see some pics to get me more pumped up for riding my tank of these broken arm freaks.

 

[Smarsh]

Okay, not the best picture but note the ragged skirt and then note the asterina at the base of the zoa.

 

[Raptor]

I also see some algea looking stuff growing on one of the stalks near the back.
They may eat them i am not saying they dont, But i think they are taking advantage of dieing zoa;s or algea/ In you case looks like both. JMO though.

 

[Smarsh]

nope, we shall agree to disagree. This is poor picture taking. I was in a hurry taking those pictures. None of the other polyps were affected except for the ones the asterina's are eating, at least in my tank. I do know that not all the asterina's eat zoanthids. From the what I have heard from others is that it is only the pinkish/brownish ones. I used to have some all white ones and they never bothered any of my zoanthids, only these pinkish colored ones.

I hope they never bother yours. At least the ones that they have eaten the skirts off of seem to be trying to recover. It will be interesting to see if the skirts grow back. They don't seem to bother them once they eat the skirts off of them.

Sandy

 

[jessiesgrrl]

Creetin, aren't there pics of them on zoaid.com under the predator page? I want to say I have seen a pic posted on RC of them eating one as well- but I don't have the search feature ?

Laurie

 

[geoxman]

I am sure there many thousands of varations of astrina stars. I have seen them eating some of my very healthy palys/zoos. I use catch them at night and banish them to the sump. I did a big PITA FW dip about 1 month ago because I was losing polyps in the left rear of my tank. No nudis, spiders, looked real hard, but about 100 stars and one ticked off mantis-gave it away! good luck

 

[twon8]

Creetin, aren't there pics of them on zoaid.com under the predator page? I want to say I have seen a pic posted on RC of them eating one as well- but I don't have the search feature ?

Laurie

i have literally thousands of them in my tanks, and they will certainly be found at times clinging to zoas, some sick, some that have been overgrown by algae. it is certainly possible that some eat the zoas in the process of cleaning off the algae, but i have yet to see a asterina prey upon healthy zoas. im with creetin on this one

 

[surfn]

Okay, not the best picture but note the ragged skirt and then note the asterina at the base of the zoa.

that is EXACTLY what my PRPE's and a few of my RPE's have looked like lately. asterina starfish are on my suspicious list, as well as a few other critters.

I dipped my RPE's a couple of weeks ago in a strong lugols bath with saltwater, and 5 huge bristleworms crawled out. so i figured it was them. things got better for a while but noticed some skirts missing again a week ago and the PRPE's looking very bad.

so this time I did a FW lugols dip. i pulled off a limpet and some asterinas. as far as i can tell, i have 2 kinds of asterinas in my tank. the larger tan lookin ones. and these smaller grey looking ones. the smaller grey ones are the ones i'm suspicious of, dunno why...
i also pulled off a very tiny shelled snail shell that has stripes, doesn't have the same shape as a sundial snail shell though, looks like a baby margarita snail shell. got rid of it just in case though...


the skirts do grow back though, i'm positive, i've been dealing with the problem on my PRPE's for several months now.


so besides just pulling out the asterina starfish, which is near impossible b/c they are small. what do you do to get rid of them? will intercepter kill them in a tank treatment? i did a bunch of FW dips on most of my zoas, but its impossible to get rid of all of them.

 

[geoxman]

I have had a problem with the smaller grey ones, but I cant say for sure because the FW dip had iodine in it and the water was brown. I did not inspect, they just went down the bathroom sink drain, yes I use tap for my dips, a little chlorine is always a good thing in killing things. when I use pull them out they were grey.

I cant see mine on the sides of my tank eating harmless algae, as I have no viewable sides. I just noticed them after the FW dip, and they were dead. I have not had any lost skirts/polyps in that area since the dip. As I stated before there was no nudis, spiders, just small dead starfish. Good luck!

 

[ZooYorkUnderworld]

asterina's do eat Zoo's. I have a fellow reefer here in NY that was losing zoo's like crazy she bought 2 harly's and hasent had a problem since, I also have had the chance to see this in my tank here's a pic I took...

 

[surfn]

there is no other natural predator besides a harlequin shrimp? seems kinda pointless to get one just to get rid of the asterinas. they hide so much, i have a hard time beleiving they would actively go out and hunt them down.