Zoanthid Predators

[YoYoGaming]

Do you have little white asterina starfish in your tank? If you have answered yes, you have probably just answered your question of why wont your Zoanthids grow. ASTERINA STARFISH EAT CERTAIN ZOA AND PALLY POLYPS!!!! I am very sick of those who say that they do not. I have watched many a green people eater colonies in my previous tanks be eaten away by these pest starfish. When your lights go out you would be surprised to see these little buttholes attatched firmly to the top of a closed polyp. What they do is basically shove their stomach into the polyp where it digests it from the inside out. You may never notice anything wrong on the outside of the polys besides the fact that it never opened again. I wish i still had the pictures to proove it, but i assure you, the asterina starfish eats Zoanthids... I have also documented them eating Green Star Polyps. Witnessing this first hand , the purple bubblegum looking mat was apparently its target as i saw blackened holes eaten straigh through the mat. Everyone please post any other zoa predators that you may know of.

 

[cloak]

Check this out.

http://www.coralpedia.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384

 

[llebcire]

More evidence

More evidence

A month or so ago I moved my AOGs to the sand bed and last week I noticed several seemed to be "missing" - closer examination revealed asterinas all over the frag. Like many others, I've had them in the tank for years without realizing there was a problem and also like others this may explain why some zoanthids don't seem to make it.

Three pics from 5/27, 5/29 and today 5/31. Pics are a little overblown from my smartphone:

5/27

5/29

5/31

-Eric

 

[llebcire]

I'll start manually removing from the tank today and will need to maintain that approach for quite a while - possibly months. Not interesting in purchasing a harlequin shrimp as I don't want to purchase starfish for it to eat in the future and I (most likely) won't be able to remove it from the tank when the food source is gone.

There's been a theory that the starfish only feed on damaged zoas consuming the deteriorating flesh while other are convinced there are some species that aren't reef safe. The variety I have are either bright white (supposedly safe) or darker gray (as in the pics). To be safe I'll be removing any I see.

-Eric

 

[llebcire]

Looks like an uphill battle.

 

[taricha]

Amphipods. The pods we call scuds or gammarus shrimp, can be carnivorous to zoas.
I watched a mixed frag of green and red zoas get swarmed by what I had assumed were helpful amphipods.
The pods ate the green zoas, biting the base off the rock.
They had no taste for the red zoas.

 

[that Fish Guy]

Amphipods. The pods we call scuds or gammarus shrimp, can be carnivorous to zoas.
I watched a mixed frag of green and red zoas get swarmed by what I had assumed were helpful amphipods.
The pods ate the green zoas, biting the base off the rock.
They had no taste for the red zoas.

What Proof do you have that they actually did that?

Did you watch them actually eat the Polyps?

 

[taricha]

I did watch it. In broad daylight.
This isn't my video, but it looked like this. .. right down to where on the zoas they chewed - at the base, separating the polyp from the rock.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=62kaq0T1gU0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=62kaq0T1gU0
I now have a yellow candy hogfish that has eliminated the pods.

 

[that Fish Guy]

I did watch it. In broad daylight.
This isn't my video, but it looked like this. .. right down to where on the zoas they chewed - at the base, separating the polyp from the rock.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=62kaq0T1gU0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=62kaq0T1gU0
I now have a yellow candy hogfish that has eliminated the pods.

WOW!

That is Scary.

I didn't know that they did that.

Are all Amphipods bad or just certain ones?

 

[taricha]

Overwhelming evidence is that almost all of them are harmless hard working scavengers.
Mine never bothered anything for years ... until the green zoa frag. So they had to die.