Zoa Eating..."something"

meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
I have 2 groups of zoas in my 225G that seem like they are missing a few

On one group I found what appeared to be an "Asterina" star (or a zoa eater..LOL) I removed it and tossed it....
I have not been able to see anything else...
Is there a place that shows zoanthid eating predators...I mean all different types????
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Heeeeeeeeey!
There's no way to tell, Meowy. I can tell which ones will be the big time coralline eaters, but that about it. I've been collecting them from people's tanks.... I haven't had any of the suspect coral predators eat corals. And I SO wanted to find one!
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
LOL....I have heard that it's hard to tell....should I toss it out..or toss it in the fuge???
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Look for some of these critters......








I've never tossed an asterina. If you do witness him munching on corals... I would like to have him please :)
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
LOL...how would I know if it's him or not???? I have never tossed one either....and I have never had a problem either...
I looked in my hitchhiker bible...lol....and saw all those above guys :)
I have seen nothing similar in the tank.....
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
unfortunatly you can not visually tell the difference between a zoa eating asterina and a safe one (or if you can you probably need a microscope and a more comprehensive knowledge of echinoderms than I posses). fortunatly the occurance of the predatory ones are extremely rare (about 1 in 1000 or more) I have only ever seen one in my entire time in this hobby that was a confirmed zoa eater, and it looked like the rest of them (at this point I wouldnt dare describe it because it was a few years ago). the only difference I could see was the fact that it was embeded in the face of a zoanthid and moved on later in the day leaving a half eaten husk behind.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
WELL when I get home from work tonight, I will see if the zoas look any better...I have examined the best I can, and see nothing on them at all.....
If they do not look better, my next option would be to remove them and dip them....I hope I do not hurt them...The rock they are on can be removed, BUT they have attached to the surrounding rocks
Will removing them (essentially splitting them) hurt them? Any tips?
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
There's always the risk that you loose a few. If they are going to tear, slice them with a blade or something similar instead. There will be less damage that way.
I was always pulling zoas from my tanks to feed my sundial snail tank. They really lived through it fine.... well, until the snails got at them.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3181786
There's always the risk that you loose a few. If they are going to tear, slice them with a blade or something similar instead. There will be less damage that way.
I was always pulling zoas from my tanks to feed my sundial snail tank. They really lived through it fine.... well, until the snails got at them.
LOL...OK thanks....maybe when I get home tonight they will have perked back up

Doubtful..lol....things like that don't happen to me :(
 
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