Can Asteria Stars harm (eat) Zoas

[fjck]

Looked like a large asteria star took out part of an new expanding zoa. Is that possible?

 

[aandfsoccr04]

I've never had a problem with that. I have hundreds of them. Some people say they eat coral and some say there are different kinds of astrenia too. Post a picture of yours.

 

[fjck]

[/ATTACH]
There was finally a little growth expanding on the front of this colony and this star sat on it for hours then moved up into the colony. The entire new growth was gone.

 

[IdahoGuy]

I have tons of em.. Never seen any damage from them.

 

[rogersb]

I have never had a problem but a buddy of mine kills every one of them he finds in his tank because he swears they eat his zoas.

 

[Joshporksandwic]

I think they're scavengers and eat anything that's rotting or dying just like pods.

 

[Dmorty217]

When they eat all of the algae in your tank they will start eating your corals. Just had my buddy call me last night about this same question. He wanted to know because where the asternia was on his coral now there is a white bleached out spot from where the star was munching on his coral. Do yourself a favor and kill everyone that you see. For everyone you see you probably have 5 more that you don't. You won't be able to rid the tank of them with out a total tear down or without putting something in there that will also kill all other inverts

 

[fjck]

Im going to remove all I can now after seeing that. I didn't have many until I added more live rock I purchased from someone in town. The rock was loaded with them and even looked online before adding it but everything I saw said they were harmless and possibly good. I do also have white bleached small spots apearing on the stalk of my Dunkans. I haven't seen anything on or around it though.

 

[Chriskid]

i think that the heathy zoa s never seem to be harmed, however once in a while i get one that doesn't look to hot there is a star waiting to eat it.

 

[fjck]

This is what it ate. The colony was just starting to grow.

 

[accordsirh22]

when in doubt, toss it out

 

[650-IS350]

There are some Asterina stars that do predate on zoanthids. Don't know which specific ones though. I just chuck them the min i see one.

http://www.reefs.org/forums/topic129808.html
http://www.thefragtank.ca/forum/index.php?topic=20.0

 

[Rain999]

I hate these little pesky buggers, they did eat my corals especially my Zoas! When they were at their worst, they seemed to be coming from everywhere. Every morning they would be covering the back wall of my tank and all over the rocks.

 

[650-IS350]

manual removal or harlequins best method

 

[Rain999]

To get rid of my asterina I picked up a Harlequin shrimp. I had to feed him the starfish first just to get him interested and now I have no more asterina.

<a href="http://s698.beta.photobucket.com/user/dcreefer/media/44%20Gallon%20Nano/IMG_2190_zps92f82ae9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv343/dcreefer/44%20Gallon%20Nano/IMG_2190_zps92f82ae9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_2190_zps92f82ae9.jpg"/></a>

 

[gdubs97]

They eat my zoas. Some say they only eat things that are decaying/dying. However, we all know that zoas randomly melt down and then come back. I pick them out of my tank every chance I get. They definitely eat zoas in my tank. I find them wrapped around a zoa head just sucking the life out of the zoa.

 

[cloak]

I don't trust them. As soon as I see one it's gone. The fact alone that it's hard to distinguish between stars that do eat zoanthids and those who do not is reason enough for me to remove them.

 

[msman825]

I don't trust them. As soon as I see one it's gone. The fact alone that it's hard to distinguish between stars that do eat zoanthids and those who do not is reason enough for me to remove them.

Times 2

 

[fjck]

They are attracted to that colony. I pulled two more off of it today. A larger one was completly wrapped around a large polip. Been radicating them all day. Is harliquin shrimp reef safe and do they play well with cleaner shrimp?

 

[Peter Eichler]

For many years I was one of the people in the hobby that thought they were harmless.I learned the hard way that least some species of them will eat zoas and even SPS if the population outgrows their more typical food sources. I had declining health with certain corals in my display for some months, and by the time I figured out it was the booming asterina startfish population it was too late to do anything other than frag what remained of some corals and grow them out in my anemone tank until I could thin out the population.

The only changes in the tank have been the starfish population and those frags are now growing back into colonies thanks to a harlequin shrimp. Oddly enough they didn't seem to touch montiporas, or at least wouldn't do enough damage to stress them out too much or outpace their growth.