white mini star eating zoanthids?

[Lynnmw1208]

Have any of you had experience with white mini brittle stars and eating zoanthids? Something has been bothering my new frag and the only thing that came off of it was a pure white mini brittle star and some small pods. I searched the piece for nudi eggs and everything after dipping. I have a few more white ones and want to know if I should grab them when I see them.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I can't keep them because my coris wrasse eats them all. But before I had the wrasse, I had lots of mini stars and lots of zoas. I never saw any problems. It's possible the star was eating something off the zoa and that was bothering the zoa so it closes up?

 

[Piper27]

I never had trouble with my white astrea (spelling?) stars which I am guessing is what your talking about. I have been told the blue ones will eat zoas. But if a colony of zoas is sick or dying I have seen them eat the dead parts but not kill they zoas outright.

 

[Alysiak00]

^correct. the blue/green tinged ones will eat zoos, the brownish ones will not

 

[Lynnmw1208]

I never had trouble with my white astrea (spelling?) stars which I am guessing is what your talking about. I have been told the blue ones will eat zoas. But if a colony of zoas is sick or dying I have seen them eat the dead parts but not kill they zoas outright.

nope I am talking about pure white mini BRITTLE stars. It wasn't directly on the zoanthid, but was under the rubble rock the zoanthids are on. again the only thing that came off during a dip in coral RX. strange thing is the other zoanthids look fine. this frag was separate from them though. it looks as if something was sucking the life outta them. they shrunk in size. so it's definitely not a nudi as they will just eat them like cookies.

 

[Palting]

I started seeing a few of the stars early in the life of my tank. After a few months, if I look at the tank early morning before work with the lights out, there would be hundreds if not thousands, covering my black substrate making it look polka dot and covering almost all the glass on 4 sides. They disappear after the lights come on, hiding somewhere. No problems with the zoas. And that's what I have answered on other questions like yours in prior posts.

Until recently. I noticed one day that one of my largest and oldest rock with eagle eye zoas had been mowed down to a half of it's size. It must have happened almost overnight. I didn't see any aterinas on the rock itself, but I usually don't see them during the day. All my other zoas are doing fine. I went and got a halrley shrimp about a week ago. The eagle eye zoas are re-populating. I don't have absolute proof that the asterina's did it, but they are high on my suspect list.

Now, mini brittle stars. I have white ones, I have black and white onnes, and I have black ones. Bould they have eaten the Zoas? Sure, anything could have. I certainly cannot assure you that they didn't. But my money is on the asterinas.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

I started seeing a few of the stars early in the life of my tank. After a few months, if I look at the tank early morning before work with the lights out, there would be hundreds if not thousands, covering my black substrate making it look polka dot and covering almost all the glass on 4 sides. They disappear after the lights come on, hiding somewhere. No problems with the zoas. And that's what I have answered on other questions like yours in prior posts.

Until recently. I noticed one day that one of my largest and oldest rock with eagle eye zoas had been mowed down to a half of it's size. It must have happened almost overnight. I didn't see any aterinas on the rock itself, but I usually don't see them during the day. All my other zoas are doing fine. I went and got a halrley shrimp about a week ago. The eagle eye zoas are re-populating. I don't have absolute proof that the asterina's did it, but they are high on my suspect list.

Now, mini brittle stars. I have white ones, I have black and white onnes, and I have black ones. Bould they have eaten the Zoas? Sure, anything could have. I certainly cannot assure you that they didn't. But my money is on the asterinas.

Thanks for your first hand experience. I do not have any asterinas in my tank however. The only stars I have are brittle. I am totally baffled as to what has started to suck the life out of these zoanthids, but hopefully now that they were dipped they will recover. I'll keep you up to date whether or not they come back and that star may have been the culprit. crazy what some things will eat!

 

[peasofme]

amphipods eat coral

 

[SushiGirl]

SOME amphipods may eat coral, not all of them, there is a certain type that will. Usually they're eating other stuff on/around the coral or eating dying coral flesh (they are clean up crew, after all, so they clean up dying/dead stuff). In 5 years of having white mini brittle stars, never had one eat coral.

Some zoas just disappear. We have a few frags that are going through that cycle right now. They start disappearing, then they come back.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

SOME amphipods may eat coral, not all of them, there is a certain type that will. Usually they're eating other stuff on/around the coral or eating dying coral flesh (they are clean up crew, after all, so they clean up dying/dead stuff). In 5 years of having white mini brittle stars, never had one eat coral.

Some zoas just disappear. We have a few frags that are going through that cycle right now. They start disappearing, then they come back.

what do they look like when they do this? mine literally look like something sucked the life out of them. like they are shrunken zoanthids now

 

[SushiGirl]

I don't know, I've never had any that ate coral. Here's a thread, but no pics http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1015532&highlight=pods+eating+zoas