Worm and starfish infestation

[Zoa_Fanatic]

ZOANTHID WARS PART I: THE ASTERINA CONSPIRACY

I'm reporting from an ongoing battle that started few days before the Spring swap. My aquarium was in its high peak, every citizen of that little coral

reefs.com

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I don't know about any of this but I will say I have thousands of Brittle stars and asternia stars.

Sometimes my glass looks like the Andromeda Galaxy. I also have a mated pair of 6 line wrasses along with enough bristle worms to make a nice meal of spaghetti and "wormballs" out of and never a problem with any corals since Nixon was President. He was after Lincoln.

I also have an old wife who sometimes tells me Old Wives Tales. But she still looks great.

I am sure some of these things eat coral, but I personally have never seen it so maybe I have the wrong kind.

Where did you get that trap? Looks like it works well

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Not entirely true. There is only one type that actually eat coral, and the likely hood of those being the ones in your tank is pretty slim.

For the most part asternia are unsightly, but they are pretty harmless.

I like my asternia's. I get nervous that I have the ones that eat corals...so I pluck them when i see them..but I really do think they are cool. Worms on the other hand...i can do without.

 

[homer1475]

Just because you have not seen it does not mean it does not occur. The pure white ones are 100% safe. Any spot of color on them and they’re coral murderers. I’ve personally had both. If I was losing coral and had asterina I’d murder them. No reason not whether they are the cause or not it’s best practice to make sure they don’t eat your coral.

Edit: the 20+ year flex really irritates me. Just because you have been reefing longer than some of us does not mean you have seen everything that exists in this hobby. Had someone just like you argue that asterina are always solid white and never have any spot of color. Just because it’s outside your considerable experience with reefs does not mean someone else has not experienced it

The 20+ years comment wasn't trying to flex, it was more of a "I haven't seen them do it" comment. I certtainly have not seen it all, or experineced it all. I have no doubt they can and will eat coral(certain species), it's just that most people freak out for no reason as 99% of the asternias we see in our tanks are harmless.

It's just the new way of reefing.... Do not have anything in the tank we didn't ourselves put in there. Which is the reason 90% of new reefers with dry rock, dry sand, and massive QT protocols suffer to get going.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

The 20+ years comment wasn't trying to flex, it was more of a "I haven't seen them do it" comment. I certtainly have not seen it all, or experineced it all. I have no doubt they can and will eat coral(certain species), it's just that most people freak out for no reason as 99% of the asternias we see in our tanks are harmless.

It's just the new way of reefing.... Do not have anything in the tank we didn't ourselves put in there. Which is the reason 90% of new reefers with dry rock, dry sand, and massive QT protocols suffer to get going.

That’s true. The first time I saw a bristle worm I freaked out lol because I knew I didn’t put it there.

 

[fishface NJ]

That’s true. The first time I saw a bristle worm I freaked out lol because I knew I didn’t put it there.

ahhhh but you did put it there....mostly on a frag. Dips will not get under a frag to the attached plug. That is why it is important to remove plug from frags when you get it from a vendor/hobbyist.

 

[Paul B]

Where did you get that trap? Looks like it works well

I built it in probably 5 minutes.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I built it in probably 5 minutes.

Mind if ask for specs? I built my own but my rock work takes up so much space it’s hard for me to get it somewhere the worms can get into.

 

[mermaid_life]

Thanks I have a worm trap I set daily, my 6 line hasn’t made a dent.

My sixline also does diddly squat.

I went the old school way..... Turn on the tv, get a pair of tweezers and start manually collecting for a few hours and a few days in a row. You'll never get rid of them entirely unless you have an avid predator in the tank. I have them under control now but one a week during water changes I had a set of tweezers and flip over the loose rocks. It's quite satisfying when you get a super fat one!

I don't feel like I feed a lot either. My theory is that my tangs poop a lot and that's what they feed on. They have also gone through some of my nassarius snails. I believe this because my snails started moving up onto the glass at night. They used to just graze the sand bed.

 

[Paul B]

Mind if ask for specs? I built my own but my rock work takes up so much space it’s hard for me to get it somewhere the worms can get into.

It's just a plastic container. That one on the left is an acrylic tube I had laying around. Plug both ends and in one end I put one of those little green funnel things florists use for carnations but any small about 3/8" tube will do.

Insert it into the container about half an inch. Put a sting on it so you can retrieve it and put a piece of meat or clam in it.

Place it so the opening of the tube is near the bottom of a rock where the worms hide.

Remove it the next morning and re bait it because it will stink.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

It's just a plastic container. That one on the left is an acrylic tube I had laying around. Plug both ends and in one end I put one of those little green funnel things florists use for carnations but any small about 3/8" tube will do.

Insert it into the container about half an inch. Put a sting on it so you can retrieve it and put a piece of meat or clam in it.

Place it so the opening of the tube is near the bottom of a rock where the worms hide.

Remove it the next morning and re bait it because it will stink.

That’s similar to what I made but your tube design with the carnation tube is much better. I’ve been using bendy straws lol. Gonna make me one of these asap

 

[slojim]

strange - but I rarely have success with clear bristleworm traps. It's nice to see you've caught something so there's an obvious advantage over opaque ones. But yours don't seem to be afraid of the light - maybe I just got the "trap" part wrong on the clear ones and they got back out.
My bristleworm population dropped precipitously when I added a checkerboard wrasse. I've got a few small bumblebee snails I see every know and again - they may be eatnig some small ones.

 

[Isopod80]

Regardless of the asterina debate, the OP's starfish are clearly micro brittle stars in the pictures. Micro brittle stars are not eating the coral.

 

[Isopod80]

According to the OP they aren't overfeeding and parameters seem to be in check. The only explanation I can think of is that this is a chain reaction situation. Neither micro brittles or bristleworms are known to eat healthy coral tissue but both will feed on dead and dying tissue. My guess is that at some point some of the coral began to die (for whatever reason) and these scavengers took advantage of that, growing their populations further. As the populations grew, the corals became increasingly stressed by the unintentional irritation of these creatures (especially at night) and more tissue began to die off as a result. Again, the scavengers took advantage and grew their populations further. Eventually it got to the point where there is such a massive quantity of both organisms that they are actually unintentionally stressing and killing the corals at a much more noticable rate and feeding on the death as it occours. Clearly they are swarming all over the corals in the photos, and obvious stressor. Whatever got the ball rolling initially is hard to say but the unintentional damage and subsequent feeding will continue if the animals aren't significantly reduced.