Sea star trying to eat zoa frag....

[Electus unus]

So I come home from work today, and notice my chocolate chip starfish covering my new zoa frag.... I've done research and found that they will infact eat zoanthids and are not reef safe.. Inhave to find a new home for him ASAP.

Now, the zoas don't look damaged, they are however still not opening even a tad, after 4 hours.. When first introduced to my tank they were open and "happy" looking within an hour. Has anybody ever had this issue? Has the starfish managed to do some sort of internal damage to the zoas? Or are they just shocked still? :/

[Biocubehqi]

... Can't say... I'm wondering if a Lugols wouldn't hurt... I don't think it can get much worse...

Also research before purchase, when you've done researched do it again. Then come to reef central... I really hope all works out for you!

[Electus unus]

I've done tons of research. That's pretty much all I do when I'm not working; research and working on the tank

[xnetgeek]

you could put him in your sump, I have 2 still down there that I got for my harlequin shirmp. Niger ate the shrimp ages ago, and still have 2 chocolates in my sump.. somewhere...

[thedasher]

Yah this happened to me before. My chocolate chip starfish ate a few of my zoanthids but the rest opened up fine. Just give it a few days and see what happens. zoanthids are a weird coral that seem to have mood swings. You never know if they're dead or not. But MAKE SURE you take the starfish OUT or it will be at it again.

[A. Grandis]

I've never dealt with sea stars and zoas, but I know some coral/zoa eater sea stars release chemicals to digest their prey. They do internal damage when time allows.
I wouldn't let stars in a zoa tank, unless I knew for sure they aren't going to eat them.

Grandis.