Zoa "irritators"

[goody]

Several of my colonies and frags of zoas/palys are closed and I just read the thread Closed Zoas under zoas/paly section. I followed some of the links in that thread and found that I have 3 "irritators" that I know of.

The first is aptasia. I'm starting to see them pop up within my colonies and frags and I'm not sure how to get rid of them without damaging zoas. I am getting a CBB, and possibly some peppermint shrimp, but is there a way to use Joe's juice or lemon juice without killing zoas?

Number two is Asterna starfish, which I have several hundreds if not thousands. I have had a Harlequin shrimp for a few months, but it doesn't seem to be doing a great job. I do see these crawling around or on the zoas, so I'd like to find other options of getting rid of these starfish.

Third irritator that I have hundreds of in my tank are amphipods. I don't see them that much during the day, but at night they are all over my tank (sand, rocks, sps, and zoas). I had a Mandarin, but never saw him eat any, especially since the amphipods are not visible during the day, plus these are pretty large compared to copepods, so I don't even know if a Mandarin would eat them. I did read on the link that there is no proof that they eat zoas, but they are definitely a pest I want to get rid of. Any ideas?

BTW, I have also started dosing Vitamin C. So to sum it up, how do I decrease or rid my tank of aptasia on zoas, asterna starfish, and amphipods?

Thanks

 

[jok312]

i've heard of injecting boiling water into the aptasia.. that's a pretty good idea as they are within your zoa colonies...

asternias although i've generally heard are harmless, but have heard rumors that some people have seen them eat their zoas, are usually kept quiet by harlequins.. maybe you should fire your lazy harlequin and get another.. try getting a pair, double the firepower.. maybe you shouldn't feed them either, they'll probably get hungry and start eating the asternias... or die of starvation..

amphipods i've also heard rumors of people complaining about them eating zoas, try a red scooter blenny, or fire your lazy mandarin and get another (dragonet).. i've heard certain wrasses also eat amphipods but i haven't seen my wrasses do anything lol..

 

[goody]

I'll try the boiling water. And I agree, I'm not sure if the starfish or amphipods are actually eating my zoas/palys, but they are definitely making them unhappy (closed).
Any other ideas?

 

[elgordoinavw]

Peppermint shrimp have always worked, Joe's juice has been good also, make sure you don't get it on any prized corals.

 

[gonumber24]

Peppermint shrimp for the apstasia, manually picking off the starfish that are one the zoas, and get six line or other similar Wrasse to eat the.amphipods.

 

[pgr11]

I used joes juice with great success. Turn off power heads though. I got some blow off that landed on our starfish and it ate his leg through