could it be a starfish

About 2 weeks ago one of my acroporas lost about one third of its tissue. Having said that today when i got home from work i noticed my bali tri color was losing tissue. After taking a closer look i saw there was a starfish, blue greenish in color (sorry camera is dead so no pic) on it. It was almost like it left a trail of missing tissue going around the acro. Could the problem be the star?

 

It very well could be. Some stars are known to munch on coral.

GARF predatory starfish 11/25/01

 

watch out for the small asterina starfish. 6 legs. .75in. across the arms wen fully grown.

they eat stony corals. theyre a cream color they also eat dying polyps theyre from the tropical indopacific and may come on the liverock.
but they are beneficial for cleaning the wall of the fish tank.

they reproduce asexually. and if you have a lot, i would get a starfish eating shrimp called "hymenocerca elegans"

they strip down the outside of the coral and leave the skeletal structure, it could happen fast or not.

good luck

 

If it is a starfish you definitely want one of these guys. I was infested with astrina stars, they were all over and eating polyps. Once I got this girl (she has polka dots - c'mon has to be a girl) they were put back in check. It is so cool to see the shrimp "roll" on the stars. It will spot one, make a big farmers turn in on them, and then quickly rip them off of a rock, glass, or passing hermit crab's shell. So cool. I wish I had an action shot!

 

I love those harlequim shrimp's they are so cool. I would buy one now because my starfish committed suicide on my heater (fried himself) but I haven't been able to find a locale fish store in the area that carries them... hope one day i can buy one though. Nice little shrimp reefenstein