Trouble with Green star polyps & starfish

tush

Member
:notsure: Below is a picture of my green star polyp. I'm having trouble with it. As you might be able to see that it is lifting off it's rock & is not coming out like it should. My husband as seen a little, about the size of a quarter, what seems to be some kind of star. I've seen it once & tried to catch it, but failed. The star looks white with little black stripes on the arms. I do see something that looks like the arms sticking out of the places where the polyp is lifting. I can't seem to get whatever is underneath it. Any suggestions on how to get the little buggers? I thnink there is more than one under it. I circled the places it's lifting on the second picture.
 
The GSP could be lifting for a number of reasons. A Few guesses....
Detritis could have built up in the affected area and rotted a hole in the mat. When this happens the surrounding area will lift.
The coral could be declining in general health in which case only an improvement in conditions would help.
Sometimes areas of the mat will overgrow itself. Then the mat underneath dies back leaving the upper portion "loose"
A combination of the above or something else that leads to the mat deteriorating will attract scavengers. I suspect that the starfish are simply eating the damaged areas of the GSP not the cause of the damage although ophiura would have a better idea than I. It would help to have a picture of the little guys but your discription is pretty good. Maybe do a search for "mini-stars" or "mini-brittle stars" and see if there is a better picture posted that you can identify yours with.
So what to do....I would use a turkey baster or powerhead to clean out the places that are lifting. Then if larger pieces come off or there is a large loose piece you could finish removing it with a new clean razor then use some of the super glue gel from your leather project to attach the pieces to a different piece of rubble rock. Place the new frag (yeah!) in a high water flow area. Not so much flow that you blow the pieces of GSP loose but enough to keep anything from settling on it.
I would also increase the flow around the original piece to keep it cleaned off. If the mat doesn't want to stay put you could (after throughly cleaning under it) use some more of your glue to resecure it.
Good Luck
SiF
PS the above assumes that your water quality and lighting is adaquate. If it is not then you should start there:)
 

ophiura

Active Member
Do you see little thread like arms with a central disk area or is it a typical starfish where the arms just kind of blend into an area (eg search for Asterina). From the sound of it though, it seems to be a brittlestar like Ophiactis, a common hitchiker that likes to live in crevices and holes so that you generally only see its arms sticking out. So I imagine that it is taking advantage of that situation - and I agree above that they might be getting some food in there....but I don't have reason to believe that they are directly responsible for the holes. I think they just find them a nice place to live.
 

tush

Member
:jumping: Well today we are trying to reattached my GSP to it's rock. We cut some of the flapping parts off and glued them to a new rock. But the original one sure doesn't want to come back out yet. Hope it just takes time. Anyway, I was doing the blasting with a turkey baster to get the debris out from under it & lo & behold I blasted this guy out. His arms are about 1" long. His body is small. He actually looks a little whiter than the picture, but it does show his stripes. I looked very closely with a magifying glass to see if it had any bristles. Nope. Hopefully this is a harmless guy. If so, I will put him back in the tank. As for now, he's just in a custard cup. Hope you can identify him for me. Thanks again.
 

ophiura

Active Member
Yes, harmless or good depending on how you look at it. One of the common hitch hikers...an Ophiactid brittlestar. It has six arms as it commonly reproduces by splitting, which is why three arms on one side are usually shorter. He was probably enjoying the shelted and the detritus.
 

tush

Member
:jumping: Thank you for answering so quickly. He is now back safely into his tank. He happily scurried into hiding again. Now I just hope my GSP will be ok after gluing them. Guess time will tell. Thanks a bunch.
 
Tush
Definate + on the brittlestars (harmless and good IMO:))
As for the GSP...it may take a few days before they start opening again. Just keep them in good flow and all should be well.
Good Luck
SiF
PS If you don't mind sharing I would like to see some update pics on the yellow leather and GSP w/frags if you have them:D no pressure though:)
 
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