Asterina Starfish and Montipora

Could those little asterina stars cause white areas on my Purple Monti? I have seen many of these on my glass

 

no one is answering so I'll throw it out there...
Are you dosing Calcium, Kalk?
Directly into DT or are you making sure it fully dissolved?
A picture would really help.
I have alot of experience with Monti Cap. moving, fragging, burning, touching... etc.

 

No, they are algae grazers (most of the time). If they are on your glass a lot, it would be safe to say that they are the safe, algae eating type. But, if they were on your monti all the time, they could be the cause.
What is your lighting, flow, phosphate, and nitrate levels?

 

That is what I was going to say next was "they eat algae but if they sit on a cap long enough, they'll block light or irritate it enough to not want to come out to get light."
I didn't want to give a possible wrong reply and mislead.

 

Have you completely ruled out nudibranchs as what's causing your monti problems?

 

I took the large Purple Monti out of the tank the other day and looked but maybe not carefully enough. I then dipped the coral in Seachem Reef Dip for 10 mins. Right now there are a few very little whitish areas on the coral. I will check again tonight or tomorrow and use a flashlight to the bottom of the coral and look very carefully. If I don't see any is it safe to say it was something else that bothered the coral? I am planning on getting a Superman frag next weekend and dont want to have any problems.

My Purple Haze frag still has great magenta color but I do not see any polyp extension. I have had him for 3 weeks now. His polyps were out for the first 3 days. He has no white spots either. I sassume he is getting nutrients from his zooanthalae. What do you guys think?
Thanks,
Adam

 

Well, that depends on what you're using to look for the nudis. As I've mentioned before, I needed a magnifying glass to see ours and even then, Roger had to point them out to be before I could actually see them. Unless you have large adult nudibranchs in your tank, they are really really difficult to see. I would hold off buying any more montis until you have completely ruled out the nudibranchs. I'd hate for you to go through the same thing we did!