zoanthid eating starfish

[acarson19]

A couple of weeks ago we had an outbreak of tiny starfish all over the glass of our 29 gallon tank. We read up on these and much of what we read said many are harmless but to keep your eye on them to see if anything is being bothered. Up until a couple of days ago everything seemed fine, then some of our zoanthid colonies looked a little off (a few dead polyps here and there). Well tonight I took a look and noticed two starfish on a colony of zoos so I removed the starfish from the zoos and noticed tissue damaged at the site where I removed them (on the stalk of the polyps). We proceeded to remove all the zoos we possibly could from the tank and dip them in a coral dip. Over twenty starfish came off of five zoanthid frags. It seemed apparant to me these little b*st*rds are eating my beautiful zoos. Below I will attempt to attach photos. I also noticed a really nice looking fire bristle worm tonight! I will attach a photo of this stinking nasty worm as well. My zoom on my camera is crap so I couldn't get a good pic of the zoo tissue damage that occured at the starfish removal point. If anyone has had experience with these buggers or knows anything about them, please share with me! Let me know if you have a magic solution. Culling hundreds of them by hand is my current method and I'd love to have some ideas for a better methodology. I'll take any advice at all. Thank you!



Starfish with tweezer for scale:

Starfish on the glass front of aquarium:

Close up of starfish:

Fireworm:

 

[stevemc]

I have seen those in my overflows. I have never seen any damage that I know of. But I heard they are bad. They are six legged, and reproduce by dropping an arm-one will grow from each piece. I also have a bunch of those fire worms. They sting real bad so dont grab it or get it near you when you pick it out. They have tiny glass like bristles all down the side. And poison. I see those when I am diving and avoid them at all costs! They get pretty big.

 

[So Cal shaggy]

bristleworms are harmless scavengers they do not damage healthy corals

 

[Dav]

These starfish ( asterina starfish) are harmless in my experience with them. They do eat dead or dying tissue from corals and that is what caused them to get a bad name. Look at it this way , if it is dying they will eat only the bad tissue saving you from a large die off in your system. Kinda like the maggot trick for burn victims. IMO But if you want to control them best, you can use a harlequin shrimp or two. They will knock a population down pretty quickly. Here is a link to GARF site where it explains more of how to get rid of them. It is an old post so understand this were misunderstood some only a few years ago.
Thanks
Dav
http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

 

[acarson19]

Hey all,

Thanks for the response to my questions/ concerns.

Dav thank you for the link. Do you have a link or a reference where you got your information that Asterina only eat dead tissue? I would like to try to figure out if I am having a different problem with my zoos and to definitely determine that the Asterina are not the problem.

I know the bristle worms are generally a good thing to have in my system, I'm not sure about fireworms though. Are they fine other than the danger of getting stung when my hand is in the tank? I always thought they ate fire coral, but I could definitly be wrong. I think I was wrong in calling them fire bristle worms, I think the common name is just fire worm. Oops.

Thanks again!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8581899#post8581899 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stevemc
I have seen those in my overflows. I have never seen any damage that I know of. But I heard they are bad. They are six legged, and reproduce by dropping an arm-one will grow from each piece. I also have a bunch of those fire worms. They sting real bad so dont grab it or get it near you when you pick it out. They have tiny glass like bristles all down the side. And poison. I see those when I am diving and avoid them at all costs! They get pretty big.

Stevemc, I've made the mistake of touching one of these diving one time. All I can say is OUCH! stupid fire worms! Do you get rid of your fire worms?

 

[So Cal shaggy]

Bristleworms are sometimes referred to as fireworms because of the burning sting they inflict that particuliar worm you posted a pic of will not bother your healthy corals they only pose a threat to your unprotected fingers or hand. Without them tour tank would get very dirty and your water params would be off very quickly due to uneaten food and fish/invert waste

 

[acarson19]

Tried to delete, but it won't let me. Oops.

 

[acarson19]

So Cal Shaggy,

That's great to know, thank you! After searching through a lot of marine invertebrate books it sounds as though fireworms are quite varied in their diet (detritus to corals) so it is good to know that you've had experience with this particular species above and that it is a 'good' one. Thank you! I've seen ones while diving that look very similar to the one above that do eat coral. Good to know that this bugger doesn't eat coral, but is just similar to some of the species that do eat coral.

 

[GARFVolunteer]

acarson19,

You had it right when you said "to keep your eye on them to see if anything is being bothered" I would say most asterina are reef safe but there are the exceptions. When you see them bothering something make a decision as to whether you like the coral or star fish more.

Saying all asterina are reef safe is like saying all dwarf angels or all butterfly fish are reef safe. It is just not true a true statement...

I had a perfectly healthy capnella that one type of asterina developed a taste for. When I would see the capnella was unhappy, I would look for star fish and pull them off and the next day the capnella would be happy.

Some say asterina are opportunistic feeders. I am opportunistic feeder too every time I see a Krispy Kreme, I take the opportunity...

Thanks,

Scott

 

[J. Montgomery]

I have plenty of those starfish and have never seen any problems with zoas or other corals. I also have more than a few bristleworms and "fireworms" and haven't had any problem with them either.

My approach is to leave everything alone unless you see it causing a problem. If you look hard enough, you'll find a post of someone calling just about anything the "devil" in an aquarium, from sand to tangs and everything in between.

 

[Steven M]

This is a pic of one of the Asterina starfish that munched down one of my zoa frags and some of my shrooms. I used a turkey baster to get red of them.

 

[Dr.FuManchu]

I found one of these bastids on my purple zoas. I Immediately got out my long forceps and plucked him out, I let him dry out on the counter top.

 

[dustin Combs]

Found one today wrapped around PPE polyp! Got him before he did damage to the polyp. #(#*&@##$ Suckers!!

 

[GobyJohnKenobi]

I despise them with a passion!

You finally think you got them all.
You missed one!
It drops all of its legs.
You now have SEVEN of THEM.

That's just SO wrong!!!

 

[Bebo77]

get a Harlequin Shrimp

they will eat all the starfish in your tank in little to no time...


http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=749&N=0

 

[JeffReef]

Mmmm,...I also have a few of these Asterinas. So far, no damage has been done. Thanks to this thread- I'll keep a closer eye on these critters just in case.

 

[nashorn]

I'm not sure if they eat zoo's since I have lots of them and see them only at night feeding on alge on the tank walls.