Green serpent star eating my Xenia's

i had 4 seperate clusters of xenia's last night and this morning i have 3...the only other thing i have in the tank is a banded shrimp, and i dont think he would eat it would he? any and all help would be MUCh appreciated....i got the star yesterday afternoon, so if i have to take him back id rather have the xenia's

 

xenia is a finicky coral and can easily melt away overnight in a tank.
What are your water parameters?

 

everything is normal, except my nitrates which are about 10(i put in some nitrate reducer yesterday because i stirred up the sand and had alot of bubbles and wanted to make sure the nitrates didnt go up)(which they did, luckily i put it in there cause its at about 10..no telling what it would have been if i didnt) after i posted this i did somemore research and saw some pictures of the ones that have melted...i guess that could be what it is.

 

"normal" does not help us give you a way to fix the problem. We need numbers. What type of test kits do you use?

What additive are you using to reduce the nitrates? You should do water changes and not add chemicals.

 

i used the nitrate-reducer from instant ocean, and im using the ocean master test kit from them as well. and i dont know the exact numbers off the top of my head, ill check again when i get home.

 

Ophiuroids (brittle/serpent stars) need to be target fed once they start getting larger or they'll go find food on their own. This might include your shrimp. Some of the ophiuroids are more dangerous than others. Green stars that aren't target fed are notorius fish hunters. I've never seen a ophiuroid eat a coral though.

 

yea, im pretty sure it melted though. now that ive done more research. ill do a water change and see how that goes