Help please

Im new to keeping corals and so until a week ago I just had some palys and a few zoa frags that I got from a member here and they are great although when I first got the zoas I think I put them too close to the palys who were downstream from them because all of the palys shrank and turned a dark color. I picked up a few frags the other day, I got a nice green toadstool as I heard they were pretty hardy, grew fast, and I knew if it got too big I could always trade it for credit at another place where she is crazy for big toadstools...ok now im rambling sorry. My toadstool frag had a big hole ripped in its trunk when I got home tonight. I have 3 blue leg hermits, 1 Sally lightfoot crab, a few snails, small serpent stars, a pair of reef chromis. I saw an Asterina star on the back glass this morning but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and left it Ok to my question(s) Do Asterina stars eat toadstools? and also, should I ditch the crabs and buy more snails? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

Are you sure this happened over night and it's not something you missed. Toadstools will reproduce via lateral fission but it's not an overnight process.
If I had to pick the most likely suspect out of the animals you listed I would choose the Asterina first or perhaps a worm that you do not know you have.

 

I did not know that asterinas eat corals

 

I have no ideas..and it definitely wasn't there when you purchased? Not trying to be rude by asking. Iv found a stupid aptasia on a frag I purchased once I got home and swear it grew on the frag on the way home from the LFS! Lol

 

OFK, asterina is actually the genus name and describes many species (30+). Most eat film algae, coralline , or detritus. However, some species will eat corals, (as is found with fromia sp.), the most commonly munched on corals are smooth skinned SPS (deepwater acropora) and zoanthids and palythoa, IMO. These stars are usually much rarer than their coral eating counterparts.

OP, was the "chunk" missing when you bought the coral? Its hard to say for sure what it could've been. Did you dip the coral? Its possible a leather-eating nudibranch hitch-hiked on your coral. If there is one, it'd be on or near the coral, and also look for eggs.

If you can 100% surely say there's no nudibranchs, I'd stay up one night with a flashlight and see if the culprit returns.

As far as crabs and snails go, I've been keeping my reef crab free. There's a much higher chance of your crabs going rogue, than your snails (anyone ever heard of a rogue snail? lol).

 

The coral looked fine when I bought it and I only noticed it taking a turn for the worse yesterday morning. I saw the hole in the trunk around 5pm last night this morning im pretty sure its dead and is being removed. I havent seen any nudibranchs ever, and no I didnt dip it before putting it in the DT guess I should be doing this. If I see the star again its coming out. Also going to stay up tonight and look with a flashlight.

Thanks for the responses guys (and girls).