What would eat zoas?

[~reefchik~]

I swear I have the world's worst luck with zoanthids.  I finally get all mine to open, enjoying checking on my Rainbows every day and suddenly 2 days ago they disappear without a trace!!  Fortunately it was a larger colony and is split between two rocks, so I still have about 3-4 polyps of it, but the larger frag is gone. 

What the heck?

[Kenn]

first thing that comes to mind is Zoa eating Nudi's

but that seems a little quick, could the glue,if any, have given way? what do you have in your tank?

[larrynews]

pyramid snails will eat them, i had one once if you do have them and find it you can pick it off

[harleyrider]

The little white star fish that everybody says is good, if they get on your zoas, say goodbye....

[larrynews]

i have never trusted those things.

[Kenn]

I must say I actually promote them ... now I am talking about MY system only here but I have a few Zoanthids and Palythoa and have never had a problem at all.

[harleyrider]

I never thought about it before, i bought some deepwater zoas about 20 polyps, stayed up one night with a red flashlight lens and watched those stars attack the zoas i watched for almost 4 hours, it was amazing they stretch over the head of the polyps, in the 4 hour time i watched 5 or 6 more stars come to those zoas, when i got up the next morning there was one polyp left with a star stretched over it the rest were completly gone, now i have a bare rock where the zoas used to be....

[Kenn]

After doing some initial reading it seems that the jury is still out on all Asterina starfish eating Zoas.

Some say dont trust any of them and others say that only certain species are zoanthid predators. And as there are quite a few species of the Asterina star fish its hard to ID which ones you may have in the tank.

there are also mentions that over population on the Asterina in a tank and low availability of food may cause them to eat Zoas

So with that said...

Trust to your own opinion 

[coral ranch]

That seems way to fast for nudi's. What kind of fish do you have?

[larrynews]

After doing some initial reading it seems that the jury is still out on all Asterina starfish eating Zoas.

Some say dont trust any of them and others say that only certain species are zoanthid predators. And as there are quite a few species of the Asterina star fish its hard to ID which ones you may have in the tank.

there are also mentions that over population on the Asterina in a tank and low availability of food may cause them to eat Zoas

So with that said...

Trust to your own opinion 

that is what i have read, the broken ones are supposed to be ok, but i still am not a fan, if nothing else the can irritate them

[~reefchik~]

Fish:  one spot foxface, flame angel, 5 blue green chromis, goby, yellow eyed kole tang.

My tank is full of those asterina stars!  I saw one hanging out on a bleached branch of acropora a week ago, but I don't know if it was bleached before or after the star's visit, as it was a backward facing branch, not easy to see.

I bet it's those stars, especially after what harleyrider saw.  Great...now what do I do?

[ghurlag]

Steph, I have had a few problems with healthy zoas disappearing lately, too.  And I have a few stars as well.  I'll have to see what I can spy at night

[coral ranch]

It could very well be the stars but that rabbit fish is a good candidate also.I have kept 3 different rabbit fish in our raceways including foxface and they all ate zoanthids. they were fine for awhile.My varigated rabbits lasted almost 2 years then one morning I found half a dozen large zoanthid rocks stripped bare over night .Now I give them fraggs every once in a great while for treats.

[HUNGER]

The little white star fish that everybody says is good, if they get on your zoas, say goodbye....

+1  and the nudes  coral rx does great dip everything new in it

[larrynews]

flames ca also nip at corals, they're hit and miss

[HUNGER]

watch ur tank temp 2 if it gets hot can be like melting them away

[~reefchik~]

Ok, well...that's a lot to think about     The flame isn't going anywhere.  And I've never seen him or the foxface nip anything, but I will really watch for nipping now. 

My tank runs a steady 78* so I don't think it's heat.  We have AC and I keep the house fairly cool (70-ish).

I have some Coral RX, but isn't it sort of late for that?  All this stuff's been in my tank for a couple months or so.

[HUNGER]

not realy it can help alot

[~reefchik~]

not realy it can help alot

  There are only a couple of things I can pull out now, that aren't mounted, so I guess I can dip them. 

[HUNGER]

ya i seen a nudie on 1 frag and i diped 9 after to make sure had to remount all over them

[KeepOnReefin]

The little white star fish that everybody says is good, if they get on your zoas, say goodbye....

Its depends on which of the hundreds of species of Asterina you are seeing. The vast majority are harmless, a few however, will eat corals. Mine never do.

[harleyrider]

i dont know what species they are but i sat and watched them distroy my yellow deepwaters, i mean theres not even a sign of them even ever being on that rock lol, its kinda funny to watch, they look like parachutes over the heads of the polyps..

[HUNGER]

thats y i just yank them when i see them

[KeepOnReefin]

i dont know what species they are but i sat and watched them distroy my yellow deepwaters, i mean theres not even a sign of them even ever being on that rock lol, its kinda funny to watch, they look like parachutes over the heads of the polyps..

Yep you got the bad ones. They all look the same for the most part. Thats the problem I guess.

[Vinnbelle1]

I have found that many of the bad starfish have the little red spots on them.  If you want to get rid of them, easiest way is a harlequin shrimp.

[~reefchik~]

Most of these have tiny grey spots, and a few larger ones have almost got lines of grey on them.  I'm about ready to invest in the harlequins...

[HUNGER]

every time i see them i just yank them out  but i have never seen the ones i have on my zoas  and there about the same gray dots on them