I've noticed some missing zoas lately and I'm 99% sure it's asterina stars. Any quick fix to get rid of them?
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Asterinas eating my zoas
- Thread starter dirtycontour
- Start date
How fast do they reproduce? Would it be worth my effort to pull them out as I see them?
Good deal, I pulled one of the salt and peppers this morning. Caught him on an empty patch where three or four polyps were the night before. He was a fat boy...a belly full of zoanthid I'm sure.
+1. They seem cool at first but they reproduce very quickly and can become out of hand really fast. I lost about $ 300-400 in high end zoas to them a few years back before I realized they were the problem. If your numbers are low manually remove them when you see them as previously stated. If your numbers are high you may want to get a harlequin. Good luck
Thanks fellas. I'm gonna start picking them out as I see them.
I went with they Harleys to get rid of them cause for every one you see I am sure there is one that you can't see I just felt that it was a never ending battle to get rid of them.. My Harley's rid the tank of them within a few weeks.. But like stated you need to feed them once they rid the tank so that is a added expense to think about I feed mine a chocolate chip star every 3-4 weeks which costs $11..
i added peppermints to get rid of aiptasia for me, and within a few weeks my asterinas were also gone.
Here is a pic of the star if anyone is interested.
I had an outbreak of these nasty critters a while ago too. I was new to the hobby and thought, oh cool, I have starfish growing! Then started to notice my zoas disappearing and found out those were the culprits. They do reproduce incredibly fast as I had hundreds of them when all was said and done.
It took me a few weeks of picking them out. At first I was finding 50+ at a time for the first week or two, then they started fading quickly as I was grabbing out most of the population and swarting their reproduction. I think overall it took me a little over a month (of weekly picking) to clear them all out. I haven't seen any in over a year so I'm pretty sure I got them all. I'm always on the lookout though.
Get these critters out as soon as you can. I have a pair of stainless steel tweezers that came in my fragging kit that worked well. I just reached in and had a plastic dixie cup in the other hand and kept on a picking till I didn't see anymore each session.
It took me a few weeks of picking them out. At first I was finding 50+ at a time for the first week or two, then they started fading quickly as I was grabbing out most of the population and swarting their reproduction. I think overall it took me a little over a month (of weekly picking) to clear them all out. I haven't seen any in over a year so I'm pretty sure I got them all. I'm always on the lookout though.
Get these critters out as soon as you can. I have a pair of stainless steel tweezers that came in my fragging kit that worked well. I just reached in and had a plastic dixie cup in the other hand and kept on a picking till I didn't see anymore each session.
I have a pair of tweezers in my frag kit. I'm going to go to war on my next WC. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks for all the replies!
falconut
NJRC Member
I've got one of these guys. They actually eat the asterina stars. I've got some photos of him eating, but they're still on my camera. He goes over them and expands his red stomach and leaves just the white skeleton. I still have plenty of asterina's, so he's very slow on the removal. I haven't had any issues with my asterinas, I just wanted a larger star. He's a frianti and as long as I have asterinas I know he's eating. He doesn't bother my clam either.
War Time!
I work until 11:30 pm so this will work out good. My stars all seem to climb the glass at night. I made my first "harvest" tonight. I got 25-30 of them. I knocked 4-5 into the rock work though...
I work until 11:30 pm so this will work out good. My stars all seem to climb the glass at night. I made my first "harvest" tonight. I got 25-30 of them. I knocked 4-5 into the rock work though...
I picked out another 20 last night. I'll be at again tonight when I get home.
Wait, these are bad?
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Peppermints eat them? Lol I probably have hundreds of them. I have never seen them eat my corals. Do they just eat zoas?
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I didn't think they were until they developed a taste for my zoas..
It might be nice to blame something other than myself haha damn you snails for my calcium drop
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