Zoa killers (asterina starfish)

[xxkenny90xx]

I really liked these asterinas for many years but then one day a few years ago they started munching on my zoas. So the battle to relocate them to the giant hermit crab tank of doom began.

Most people said that I must have introduced a new type of zoa eating asterina and that was why I was suddenly having issues. But I never believed that happened.

Well today it hit me, I now know why my cute little stars are eating zoas. I did not introduce a new type of starfish, I introduced a new type of zoa! And they must be tasty! Over that last few yrs I have been pulling starfish off of these green zoas while all of my other zoas have remained completely untouched.

Do certain zoas taste different than others?!

 

[Saltyreef]

Good observation and i myself have battled with these starfish (i believe to be Aquilonastra not asterina) and noticed they only munch on zoas that are dying or on their way out. None of the others.

 

[Saltyreef]

Reference.

Aquilonastra conandae - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Phil D.]

You could always gather them up and send them to me so my Harlequin Shrimp can have fun eating them.

 

[KingPiscean]

Always thought they were pretty cool until now

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Good observation and i myself have battled with these starfish (i believe to be Aquilonastra not asterina) and noticed they only munch on zoas that are dying or on their way out. None of the others.

Yes you are correct, I don't believe these are actually asterina, but that's just what we hobbiests call them. I'm not sure many people would know what I was talking about if I said aquilonastra starfish.

I have also heard that they like dying zoas, but these zoas are perfectly healthy (well except for the ones that have starfish latched onto them)

 

[xxkenny90xx]

You could always gather them up and send them to me so my Harlequin Shrimp can have fun eating them.

But look at the crab, he's so hungry

 

[PicassoClown04]

I absolutely believe that different zoas taste different. In my coral qt tank, I recently accidentally introduced zoa eating nudis. They only attacked 2 out of my 30+ varieties of zoa, both of them being 90% red. I spotted them on other zoa frags but there was never any damage so I don’t think they were eating any other zoa, just the two red ones.

In my DT, I purposely established asterinas cause they were cute and I didn’t see a problem. They’ve been perfect, until I got some Yoda zoas and put them in. Now I’m pulling dozens of asterinas off my yoda colonies and only the yodas. The tank has been up for a year, with asterinas present from the beginning and the first zoas introduced at 2 weeks. For months, dozens of different zoa varieties coexisted with the asterinas without issue but within a week of introduction, the yodas were attacked on a hourly basis. Then I had to start pulling the asterinas out by the dozen, I actually just started taking the yoda frag out every hour or so and picking off all the asterinas that had accumulated on it.

in summary, yes, I do believe that species that predate on zoas have a specific taste for certain varieties or maybe even colors of zoa. It’s going to take a lot more experimentation but I’m convinced that these two predators specifically targeted certain zoas over others.

 

[Saltyreef]

They eat any dying zoas in my tank regardless of color.

 

[Saltyreef]

Even some i didnt know were dying lol.

 

[king aiptasia]

I'm glad i stumbled upon this, I wonder what the toxin levels of these zoas are, maybe the tastier one lacked something the rest had?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I'm glad i stumbled upon this, I wonder what the toxin levels of these zoas are, maybe the tastier one lacked something the rest had?

That's a great question. I wonder if there could be anyway of testing how toxic certain zoas and palys are. Other than licking them that is.....

 

[king aiptasia]

That's a great question. I wonder if there could be anyway of testing how toxic certain zoas and palys are. Other than licking them that is.....

believe it or not you can get them analysed at lab, sometimes not for a huge price, but you will have to sacrifice a few polyps most likely to feed into the machines

 

[Phil D.]

I absolutely believe that different zoas taste different. In my coral qt tank, I recently accidentally introduced zoa eating nudis. They only attacked 2 out of my 30+ varieties of zoa, both of them being 90% red. I spotted them on other zoa frags but there was never any damage so I don’t think they were eating any other zoa, just the two red ones.

In my DT, I purposely established asterinas cause they were cute and I didn’t see a problem. They’ve been perfect, until I got some Yoda zoas and put them in. Now I’m pulling dozens of asterinas off my yoda colonies and only the yodas. The tank has been up for a year, with asterinas present from the beginning and the first zoas introduced at 2 weeks. For months, dozens of different zoa varieties coexisted with the asterinas without issue but within a week of introduction, the yodas were attacked on a hourly basis. Then I had to start pulling the asterinas out by the dozen, I actually just started taking the yoda frag out every hour or so and picking off all the asterinas that had accumulated on it.

in summary, yes, I do believe that species that predate on zoas have a specific taste for certain varieties or maybe even colors of zoa. It’s going to take a lot more experimentation but I’m convinced that these two predators specifically targeted certain zoas over others.

Send them to me!!!!! My Harlequin will love them!!

 

[will25u]

I swear they love people eater palys. They don’t mess with any of my candy apples, hornets, rainbows, etc. It’s my PPE’s that I always catch them near. I’m back to getting them out every single day.

 

[1guydude]

Been their. Sorry! Little basterds. Lol.
U can pluck em with tweezers. Pull em with fingers. Best to add the harliquin shrimp and take back to the lfs when done if u can find em again.
D

 

[coralreefer123]

If you

Good observation and i myself have battled with these starfish (i believe to be Aquilonastra not asterina) and noticed they only munch on zoas that are dying or on their way out. None of the others.

If you have any you'd like to get rid of I am happy to take them off your hands. I have a harlequin that will like them.

 

[Timfish]

Here's a paper on the genus Aquilonastra showing differences between species.

From what I've seen over the decades I'm convineced they are only feeding off biofilms. In some cases it's seems very reasonable to me there may be a pathogenic component in the surface mucus layer and that's what's actually the primary problem. In the system these two pics are from zoas and aquilonastra have been together for 16 years occasionally I do see the starfish on the zoas, but they don't do any apparent long term damage. The first picture shows a group of zoas closed up for some reason. The second is the same group two week later after whatever bugged them cleared up.