what is going on? Help
- Thread starter Rygrun
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Eastlake
Active Member
I would agree with the asterinas. I thought that they would only eat the dying polyps as well until I sat and watched them climb a totally healthy colony, that was spreading out mats and putting out new polyps, and curl up over top of completely healthy polyp and start to munch, until I removed it that is. The damage shown in the picture is definitely starfish damage and I would manually remove them when you see them or if the population is large enough invest in a harlequin shrimp.
littlebigreef
Valuable Member
I was having sever issues with stars as the population was unchecked. Harlequins took care of the issue.
I’ve never seen them damage a healthy colony. And when a colony starts to go down hill I’ve looked them over closely for pests and found no stars on them. Yet they continue to decline. The stars show up after the polyps start looking rotten. I’m not arguing, just pointing out my observation to better help. It very well could be the stars.
I guess my question is, would a star cause the polyps to rot like they are in the photo? I think it’s easy to see a star in the photo and jump on the band wagon that stars are ultimately the cabuse when something else could be at play here.
littlebigreef
Valuable Member
I suspect that if not the stars then something is damaging the zoa and from the there tissue is necrotizing. I would strongly suggest a Lugol's dip if you haven't done one already.
As for the stars I used to be ambivalent about them until one night I turned the lights on at like 2am and saw stars swarming my zoa colonies. That was that.
As for the stars I used to be ambivalent about them until one night I turned the lights on at like 2am and saw stars swarming my zoa colonies. That was that.
Eastlake
Active Member
In the second photo, where the polyps look like they're rotting, the damage you see is what a polyp looks like after an asterina has been sitting on top and digesting it. I'm not suggesting that all of them do it as I'm sure there are at least a dozen species of "asterina" that only graze on the film on the glass but having seen this in my own tank, lots, I am familiar with what that damage looks like. If you can, isolate the colonies that are being effected in an area that the stars won't be able to get to or turkey baster the stars off of them any time you see them even 7 inches away from the colonies and perhaps that'll give you a better idea if it's just starfish damage or if there's something more sinister at work. When I removed the stars from the area my colonies started to grow back.
