tiny starfish eating my green star polyps and Zoa's! What eats them???

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davidmwj

Guest
I have these tiny grayish/white starfish all over my tank. It's been that way for a few months now. I also noticed my gsp and zoanthids having problems although I didn't know it was related until I saw them on top of said corals a couple of days ago. I've been trying to pull them out, but it's very difficult as they must propagate quickly. They blend against the sand and seem to move on my coral at night.

Now, my too large rocks that were covered with gsp are decimated. Only the purple sheet is left. I'm hoping they will come back if I get rid of these suckers. I feel like I've got my own mini crown of thorns issue going on. The only gsp I have left is on the return jets from the sump. I guess because they haven't managed to get up there yet.

Is there anything that will eat these suckers or any kind of medicine(poison) I can put into the tank to kill them? I saw on an old thread that a six line wrasse would eat them, but I have a six line and it's not.

Thanks
 
mr llimpid

mr llimpid

Member
Please post a picture. Do they look like this.
There are 4 strains of these star that will eat coral, you have one I guess. Since they multiple quickly by dividing getting rid of them will be hard. You can try harlequin shrimp they eat only star fish, but this will take time or remove them with tweezers.
 
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davidmwj

Guest
Yes, that looks like them, although they are a little more pale in my tank. They are the color of the sand bed. They definitely split in half like that. I have a few "halves" in the tank as well.

Thanks, I'll get some of those shrimp and keep picking them out when I see them. Can the harlequin kill my brittle star? It's fairly large, about the size of my hand.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidmwj http:///t/396505/tiny-starfish-eating-my-green-star-polyps-and-zoas-what-eats-them#post_3532898
Yes, that looks like them, although they are a little more pale in my tank. They are the color of the sand bed. They definitely split in half like that. I have a few "halves" in the tank as well.

Thanks, I'll get some of those shrimp and keep picking them out when I see them. Can the harlequin kill my brittle star? It's fairly large, about the size of my hand.

Hi,

The GSP is fine, the little stars are just on them so they closed up, the blue/purple matt is what it looks like when they draw in, so they are not decimated. I just wanted you to know things are not that bad, the little stars isn't eating them, they may be feeding on algae clearing the matt so they are lingering on it.

Brittle stars come out at night, fish swim in the daylight. I don't know if he harlequin will eat it or not, but they have opposite patterns for when they are out and about. However if your brittle is that large, is it a Green brittle? Green brittles eat fish after a certain size.
 
mr llimpid

mr llimpid

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidmwj http:///t/396505/tiny-starfish-eating-my-green-star-polyps-and-zoas-what-eats-them#post_3532898
Yes, that looks like them, although they are a little more pale in my tank. They are the color of the sand bed. They definitely split in half like that. I have a few "halves" in the tank as well.

Thanks, I'll get some of those shrimp and keep picking them out when I see them. Can the harlequin kill my brittle star? It's fairly large, about the size of my hand.
Yes they will eat any star fish it ghets a hold of.
 
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davidmwj

Guest





Here are some pictures that I think will help. The first pic was taking this morning before the lights came on, sorry about the flash. You see one on the glass plus 2 on the clam. The second pic shows the damage. The 2 rocks on the left and right of the pic are the ones with the gsp. The rock in the center had a lot more green zoa's then you see now. Obviously, I have yellow polyps too. I have that orange zoa frag tilted up to keep the starfish from getting on it so fast. I've pulled them off it a couple of times already. Trying to get that to spread to the larger rock. The third pic just shows one of them on the GSP. About an inch below that white spot if you don't see it.

Flower, the GSP rocks have been like this for over a week. How are they getting light if they never open up? I have had gsp for a few years and I know how they open and close. They just don't open anymore. You can look at some of my pics in old posts to see how much of it I used to have. I swapped rock with my lfs about 7 or 8 months ago to get rid of a lot of it and now it looks like I'm going to lose what I had left. The brittle is definitely black, but it is big.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Flower, the GSP rocks have been like this for over a week. How are they getting light if they never open up? I have had gsp for a few years and I know how they open and close. They just don't open anymore. You can look at some of my pics in old posts to see how much of it I used to have. I swapped rock with my lfs about 7 or 8 months ago to get rid of a lot of it and now it looks like I'm going to lose what I had left. The brittle is definitely black, but it is big.

Hi,

My GSP actually got electrocuted (heater broke open) and closed up for weeks and came back. They are a very hardy coral, and as long as the matt is blue/purple...it's still alive and has hope. They are irritated, but I think once the little stars go, they will bounce back. One day you will see a little star polyp here, and few over there and before you know it, full bloom. I even had Xenia melt to a mushy goo. My lights were old, but as soon as I could afford new lights a month later, thinking I had lost the Xenia...it came back, first the little spot looked fuzzy then it actually got big enough to see, a whole crop of them growing out of a little pool of dead Xenia snot. Now, I never give up on a coral, I leave it alone and wait.

Those little stars are like bristle worms, they populate as food allows...if and when that food supply ends, they die off. Is it possible you were overfeeding your fish?
 
mr llimpid

mr llimpid

Member
Flower right about the star population, I had a ton of them in my tank, thought about the Harlequin shrimp but the time I researched the problem and found the shrimp and found the LFS to buy the shrimp the population has decreased. I still see them here and there but not in mass quantities as B4. Mine never bothered my polyps or xenia.
 
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davidmwj

Guest
That's good news. Hopefully they will indeed come back.

It is possible I was overfeeding. I cut back to every other day again a few days ago. By they way, I pulled one of them off a coralline encrusted hermit crab shell yesterday. It turned the coralline from purple to orange where it was. So, I can see now why the polyps would pull in even if they aren't eating them.

I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks to both of you for your advice.

David
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr LLimpid http:///t/396505/tiny-starfish-eating-my-green-star-polyps-and-zoas-what-eats-them#post_3532940
Flower right about the star population, I had a ton of them in my tank, thought about the Harlequin shrimp but the time I researched the problem and found the shrimp and found the LFS to buy the shrimp the population has decreased. I still see them here and there but not in mass quantities as B4. Mine never bothered my polyps or xenia.

I must have missed the shrimp post. It would be so awesome to have a thread on what eats what pest, that folks could go to for a reference....Where is our book writer Snake when we need him...LOL
 
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davidmwj

Guest
Well, I just wanted to post this update with my rock. The green star polyps are almost completely gone in the tank. If they weren't eating them, what ever they did must have killed them. Fortunately, they don't seem to be killing my zoa's as I originally thought and everything else appears to be thriving.

I'm hoping they will starve now that the gsp is gone. It's been futile trying to pull them out. They reproduce too quickly.


 
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