Long Term STN and Asterina Starfish

[-Logzor]

My reef has been suffering from long term STN for the past year and a half, at least. My acropora will be healthy, encrust, then they begin to STN for several weeks, recover a bit, encrust, then begin the process again until the colony is dead.

I consider myself to be very experienced and have carefully examined every possible cause for the STN.

Yesterday morning I was inspecting the tank with a flashlight before I left for work. I had remounted a green slimer frag because the entire body of it had STN'd. It was beginning to encrust very nicely but I noticed a starfish a few cm away from the tissue. When I got home from work that evening I noticed a small chunk of flesh missing from the coral. That's proof enough for me to say these starfish are eating my acropora.

In the past I have noticed starfish on my acropora but always assumed they were eating flesh that was already STN'ing. Now I have proof that the coral was perfectly healthy beforehand and the starfish was not attracted to already dying tissue.

So, manual removal or harlequin shrimp?

 

[Chameleon]

hmmm...interesting..I always thought those guys were harmless. get a harlequin and see if it helps.
BTW I heard of someone who has about 6 chocolate chip starfish in his sump and every so often he will cut off ones leg on a rotating basis to feed his harlequins. By the time he gets back around there is a new leg forming

 

[turbo21]

I think one of the problems is that there are different types of asterina starfish. I think some are peacefull and others are coral eaters. If yyou would look at the back wall of my tank right now you could probably count over 200 (220 gal tank) I have not lost one zoa or any sps to them. I see them crawling on z's and p's but have yet to see evn one on an acro?

logzor i have heard that there are some bad ones out there and they have more black or beige coloring to them than the good ones. can you add to this?

bob

 

[-Logzor]

Exactly. I read an article that says 5% of these starfish are potential coral predators. Or perhaps they are more opportunistic and get a "taste" for certain types of coral.

The ones I have a pretty beige but no where near black. Perhaps I should snap a few pictures of them?

 

[Chameleon]

Perhaps I should snap a few pictures of them?

Is that really even a question...lol

 

[-Logzor]

Is that really even a question...lol

Yeah there are these horrible monster acropora eating starfish and I'm asking myself if I should maybe take a couple pictures...lol

 

[xcorallusx]

Not sure on your tank info but it could be that youre having stability/phosphate issues and the starfish are eating away at dead tissue and algae. If not blow them off with a maxijet. Do you have any pictures of the corals? What do you have for flow?

 

[-Logzor]

Not sure on your tank info but it could be that youre having stability/phosphate issues and the starfish are eating away at dead tissue and algae. If not blow them off with a maxijet. Do you have any pictures of the corals? What do you have for flow?

I suspected the same thing but my observation of the green slimer proved that this was not the case. It was in perfect condition the morning I inspected it, there was a starfish near the base, when I got home from work there was a chunk of tissue missing.

Tank is perfectly stable via dosing pumps. Plenty of flow, 1 MP60 and 1 Tunze 6100, both are nearly on full blast (tank is 150 gallons). I've tested water samples from all the high end coral shops just to make sure my test kits or salinity were not incorret. Believe me I've exhausted this. I've even ran Cuprisorb thinking that somehow heavy metals were entering the tank. I've tried doing no water changes and nothing but water changes, didn't seem to matter.

 

[Reefltx]

When was the last time you changed your ro/di filters?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[-Logzor]

About 3 months ago. I make sure my TDS never goes above zero.

 

[-Logzor]

Phosphates measure zero on Hanna meter. Maybe too low?

 

[jlbzixxer]

IME phosphates effect more the color and growth, i would think
it would cause stn
have you try dipping your affect sps?

 

[jlbzixxer]

*would not

 

[-Logzor]

Yes when it was initially occurring I tried both Coral RX and Iodine baths on the corals and it did not stop the progression. The solution I've been using is super-glue which has worked very well. The coral will typically encrust then re-start the STN process a few weeks or months later. I have excellent color on the majority of my SPS, LPS look fantastic, so do my montipora, so I wouldn't suggest they are starving at all.

I suspect that the starfish are eating the tissue. In that process they are probably causing some degree of STN. I'm talking extremely slow in some cases, like 1mm per week. Like an open wound the coral is more likely to get disease or infection. Not sure if the starfish harbor any type of poison or secretion when eating.

 

[-Logzor]

GARF predatory starfish 11/25/01

 

[Chameleon]

very interesting. I had something very similar happen in my tank when I started using GFO. I wonder if the GFO reduced algae so much that the Starfish started eating coral instead of algae. I have since taken GFO offline and things have improved.

 

[-Logzor]

Something like this is possible. When I first started this tank I had zero coraline growth for months. Perhaps the starfish got a taste for coral during that period of time?

 

[Kbra]

Harlequin

 

[-Logzor]

A friend of mine is actually getting one of these to eradicate starfish as well, he's going to let me borrow it when it's done the job in his tank.

 

[Pkunk35]

2nd the Harlequin. If I saw a asterina munching on coral I would have a harlequin the next day. I got mine because I thought asterina were interfering with coralline growth.

Getting rid of all my asterina was a very good move for my tank IMO, i do believe it allowed other species to thrive as asterina populations can boom.