Chocolate Chip Star vs. LTA (LET'S GET IT ON)

[spyder78]

Okay, so contrary to popular belief, a chocolate chip star WILL most definitely eat a long tentacle anemone!!!!

I recently decided to switch from a fish-only setup to a reef setup. I wanted to start out slowly, so I added the LTA first and was going to build from there. I added the poor little guy two days ago. When I got home from work yesterday, the CCS was just finishing him off.
Guess I should have know better. So now the CCS goes back to the LFS, and I get to shell out more money on another anemone. Guess that's how this hobby goes!

 

[lovethesea]

I am shocked!! We had a Choc Star and anemone for 5 years together and absolutely no problems. Now our snails are a completely different story

 

[spyder78]

Yeah, that star goes through snails like they are candy!
I love the star, but if he's gonna eat all of the anemones and corals that I put in.... he's gotta go. The LFS told me beforehand that I could run into this problem. They said it was just a slight chance though. Oh well!

 

[1journeyman]

Neither anemones or CCS are considered reef safe.
Sorry for your loss.

 

[nigerbang]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Neither anemones or CCS are considered reef safe.
Sorry for your loss.

You bring up a good point about anems not being reef safe...I know a lot of people that consider anem, being common in reefs..I have always thought that it was a mistake that some people consider them to be RS...A moving stinger..not my idea of reef safe..Could you imagine the damage they could do in a packed SPS...

 

[1journeyman]

Yup.
i have openly admitted i'm oen of the guilty. I have a BTA in my tank. After it was comfortable I placed a frag of Xenia opposite it's rock. The thought was the anemone would keep the xenia in check.... surprisingly the xenia ran the anemone off. My tank was never corwded with corals; if it was i would not add either of these species.
Anyway, many folks forget the toxicity of corals. They can and do strive to outcompete each other. As you pointed out, having a mobile invert with millions of stinging cells in a tank with other less mobile inverts can be disasterous.

 

[saltn00b]

hmm when i had my BTA it totally decimated my swaying xenia stalks....

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
hmm when i had my BTA it totally decimated my swaying xenia stalks....
Mine killed several stocks, but it just kept reprocucing and charging.. I guess the anemone finally decided I wasn't paying it enough for guard duty.
I'd love to know what the natural predator on xenia is in the wild.

 

[nigerbang]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Mine killed several stocks, but it just kept reprocucing and charging.. I guess the anemone finally decided I wasn't paying it enough for guard duty.
I'd love to know what the natural predator on xenia is in the wild.

Wow...Never thought of that...Could you imagine diving and seeing this 10-20 acre field of xenia...That would be neat.

 

[1journeyman]

Exactly... I know they have some kind of protective slime coating that I would guess keeps most fish from eating them.

 

[lovethesea]

oops...my bad Spyder. I breezed right over the part of you having a reef. Choc Chip definetaly NOT reef safe. The anmemone is still a shock to me.
Way back when.......we had a bad LFS and he told us that a CC would be great in our tank. We told him that we had this grea piece of rock with some mushrooms. NO problem he said.

Well "Chip" had a great dinner that first night in our tank.

Also make sure the rock work is really secure.

 

[spyder78]

Thanks! I don't have the reef started yet... thank goodness! The CCS is going back to the LFS this week, and I will use that credit to start buying corals (and a new anemone).