Red Thorny Starfish eating staghorn??

[Southreef]

My green staghorn has been decimated as of late. It looks like something has been eating it but not in flatworm size chunks... I'm talking mucous secreting areas of the coral left behind. I have gone down the path of dipping for FW, I have done several red bug treatments over the last 8 months or so, and even dipped in iodine as I thought it might be some sort of bacterial infection...

Long story short, I fragged a bit of the untouched tips of the staghorn(the only part of the mother colony that is eaten is what I would equate to the more accessbile lower branches of the tree trunk) and placed the frag on my sand bed to heal up a bit. Last night I noticed my Red Thorny Starfish parked on top of the frag. Being curious I let him be, and in the morning he was still there munching away. In my naivety I thought, "awesome, he'll clean up the base of the frag plug and help the coral take over the plug."
After ole thorny left the scene of the crime, the frag still has some polyps left but it looks like the star took a pretty good bite out of the bottom half of it....

Does this story surprise anyone? Any similar experiences? Do I need to go starfishing?

 

[reeferlover]

my buddy has one that ate all of his zoas. they were disappearing and one night he found him eating his last frag. after it took out 20+ frags. problem is ill never hear the end of it, i told him to get it.

 

[blue98ls1]

I have one that ate all of my featherdusters. They're usually reef safe, but when they run out of organic detrius to eat, they'll start on other things.

Get some of those sinking algae wafers and add a couple a week to your tank. That will keep it happy.

 

[Southreef]

Thanks for the tips guys... I'll try it tonight