Green Stardust People Eater

Green Stardust People Eater is a named zoanthid from the People Eater family, and the master strain queue files its check in one line: a green disc dusted with pale speckles. The People Eater part of the name carries its own structural meaning from the naming era. The PE Zoanthid Catalogue, a history thread written by a keeper who handled the early imports, records that the founding polyps were picked out by a bright green slit mouth, and its closing passage holds that the group members share prominent slit mouths even where colour and rim patterns diverge. A buyer should therefore run two checks together: the green disc with its pale dusting of speckles, and the People Eater architecture underneath — a larger, paly-sized polyp with a slit mouth, read under light close to neutral.

The speckled forms arrived as their own wave in that history. The catalogue describes solid People Eater forms first, then forms with speckling, and it photographs a green speckled PE as part of that arrival. Its taxonomy passage sorts the umbrella into disc kinds — solid body, halo ring with radial lines reaching halfway in, radial lines running to the centre, and a darkened bulging centre — and it warns that the umbrella probably covers three or four separate species grouped by disc structure. This entry files the strain as Zoanthus sp. following the master queue, records AquariumDomain's Zoanthus gigantus filing and the catalogue's Zoanthus gigantea renaming argument as group history, and claims no species for this strain.

Colour stability is the strain's defining keeper topic, and the record begins in May 2006. A collector posting on Reef Central reported that material coloured like Green Stardust PE is hard to find because the wild form looks totally different, and that a morph in his own tank had turned into Green Stardust PE over about eight to ten months, with before-and-after photographs attached. His practical conclusion was that a keeper who wants the form could look for the unmorphed material and save money, since he considered his morphed colony the same coral. The entry repeats that as one keeper's documented experience with his own colony; the mechanism behind the change was not established in the thread.

The reply in the same thread is the necessary counterweight, and the entry keeps it at full strength. A second keeper asked what condition caused the morph, warned that material would likely turn back unless the receiving tank reproduced that condition, and reported buying Green PE, Green Stardust PE, and other green palys that sat somewhere in between — all of which changed a bit in her tank. A third keeper in the same conversation generalised the point from his own collection: some zoas he bought for their look look different now, others stayed exactly the same, and many change over time under different lighting. The working rule for a buyer follows from the three reports together: judge the strain by polyp structure and speckle pattern, treat the exact green saturation as a tank-dependent expression, and give a new colony months before deciding what form it will hold.

The close neighbours need keeping apart for the same reason. Green People Eater is a separate neighbouring name — the 2006 thread treats Green PE and Green Stardust PE as different purchases, and a current wholesale listing sells Zoanthus spp. (Green People Eater) as its own frag with Easy care and moderate-to-high light. Aspen Palys sit one step further along the speckle axis: the catalogue's taxonomy passage describes an aspen as a green speckled PE with white frosting, so heavy pale frosting over the whole face points toward the Aspen name and away from this strain's lighter dusting. Nuclear Green, already in this database, is a solid radioactive-green paly with no speckle check at all. On a crowded green shelf, the speckle dusting plus the slit mouth is the combination that carries this name.

Care carries one strain-specific warning, and the entry states it before the family reassurance. In a 2010 Reef2Reef thread, a keeper described his Green Stardust PE colony as doing very well and budding freely, then reported that the adult polyps started to melt just as the babies were about to open, leaving two polyps from eight, which he split onto separate plugs in separate places in the hope they would regrow. The same post reports that he had lost several other People Eater frags as well, so the report reads as one keeper's PE run rather than a controlled verdict on this strain alone. The care tile still steps up to Intermediate on that record: a named strain with a documented colony melt in its file should not carry the family's beginner tile unqualified.

Water chemistry follows the standard reef shape, and the two records read this run agree closely. Reef To Go's standard parameters suit the strain: temperature 77–79 °F, salinity near 35 ppt (about 1.024–1.026), alkalinity 8–10 dKH held steady, calcium 400–450 ppm, with low but detectable nitrate and phosphate. The PE group profile gives 72–79 °F, alkalinity 8–12 dKH and salinity 1.023–1.025, with magnesium, iodine and trace elements as its supplement list. Top Shelf Aquatics gives calcium 380–450 ppm, magnesium 1,250–1,350 ppm, nitrate 5–15 ppm and phosphate under 0.10 ppm for the family. Zoanthids carry no calcium skeleton, so the colony itself makes no dosing demand; stability and steady nutrients do the work, and stability matters doubly for a form whose colour record is already changeable.

Light is one place the group record and the family record pull in different directions, and the entry keeps both visible. The PE group profile calls for medium to strong lighting so the symbiotic algae thrive. The family band at Top Shelf Aquatics is 75–150 PAR, with moderate light typically sufficient, some varieties colouring brighter higher, and a slow 2–3 week transition required to avoid bleaching. The working plan that respects both records is to start low in the family band on lower rockwork, climb in small steps, and let the colony's own response arbitrate over weeks and months — this strain's own history says colour verdicts taken in the first month are unreliable, because the documented morph took the better part of a year.

Flow follows the same split in milder form. The family text calls for moderate, indirect flow that sweeps debris off the mat and leaves the colony open and extended. The PE group profile calls for moderate to strong flow on the same reasoning, feeding the zooxanthellae-driven system with steady exchange. The tile holds Medium from the family record; a colony on a raised island that stays open under stronger random flow is following the group record, and a colony that closes under direct flow is giving the more useful answer for its own tank.

Feeding is a supplement with a real but secondary effect. The PE group profile states that most People Eater morphs take the majority of their nutrition from photosynthesis and require no supplemental feeding, while keepers chasing higher growth rates have used very fine filter-feeder foods. Family guidance adds fine-particle foods offered a few times a week, broadcast or wafted over the colony with flow paused for ten to fifteen minutes, supporting colour and growth. A keeper essay on zoanthid feeding argues that the larger People Eater polyps, filed there as Zoanthus gigantus, will readily accept larger meaty food such as brine shrimp, while smaller morphs need fine particulate — a group-level claim this entry records without turning it into a strain feeding requirement. Heavy feeding risks a film of algae on the mat, and consistent nitrate and phosphate usually matter more for colour stability.

Placement should plan from day one for a mat-forming colony on its own island rock. The PE group profile makes the containment point in its own terms: these polyps colonise nearby rock and hard surfaces, crowding neighbouring corals as they grow in, so gaps between rocks form the boundary that limits the carpet. Zoas win ground by cover rather than by stings, so the neighbour risk is shading and overgrowth, and an island contains the spread to one observable rock. Begin on a low island, walk the colony upward only as its colour and shape ask for more light, and keep the island wherever it lands so the containment survives the move. A colony that starts melting should be split early onto separate plugs in separate places, following the one recovery move the strain's own melt report documents.

Pests and predators deserve a check on any new frag. The family checklist is a night inspection — zoa-eating nudibranchs, sundial snails and tiny zoa spiders near the skirt, egg spirals removed by hand, dips repeated across hatch cycles when finds appear. Handling follows the family safety rule at full strength: Top Shelf Aquatics warns that some zoanthids and their Palythoa relatives can carry palytoxin, so gloves and eye protection go on for every handling session, colonies stay away from high heat, and hands and tools are washed thoroughly afterwards. The PE group sits at the larger-polyp end of the family, and the standing practice treats every colony as a carrier regardless of which name it carries.

Field notes — what keepers report

- The morphing record is the strongest strain-specific evidence this entry has, and it comes with dates and photographs. In a Reef Central thread opened in May 2006, keeper mschriskim wrote that Green Stardust PE is hard to find coloured that way because the wild material looks like a totally different morph, and that a morph zoa in his tank had turned into Green Stardust PE over about eight to ten months; he posted before-and-after photographs and concluded the two were the same coral, suggesting keepers could buy the unmorphed form and save money. The thread records no water, light, or feeding condition as the cause, and this entry claims none.

- The reversion warning arrived in the same thread, from keeper ReefWifey, and both sides stay in the entry. She asked whether the morphing keeper knew which condition caused the change, warned the form would likely turn back in a tank lacking that condition, and reported that her own purchases of Green PE, Green Stardust PE, and in-between green palys had all changed a bit in her tank; she attached separate photographs of material sold to her as green stardust and as green pe. Her post also satirised the era's naming inflation with an invented hybrid name for one in-between colony — period colour that shows how loosely green PE names were already being applied in 2006.

- A third voice in the same 2006 thread, keeper Dastank, generalised the colour point from his own buying: some zoas purchased for their look look different now, some stayed exactly the same, they always look a little different under different lighting, and many change over time. That general report supports the thread's shared conclusion — structure outlasts saturation as an identification check — without adding a strain-specific claim.

- The melt report is specific, dated, and confounded, and the entry presents all three properties. In April 2010, Reef2Reef keeper BlazinNano reported that his Green Stardust PE colony had been doing very well and budding freely, then the adult polyps started to melt just as the babies were about to open; he lost all but two of eight polyps and placed the survivors on separate plugs in separate places, hoping they would grow. In the same post he reported bad luck with People Eater zoas generally, having also lost three Ding Dang PE frags and an OPE frag. The strain-specific loss is documented; the keeper's wider PE record is documented beside it, and the care tile's step up to Intermediate rests on the loss with that context attached.

- The budding half of that 2010 report is the growth evidence, and it cuts against a simple slow-grower reading. The colony was producing babies across the mat shortly before it melted, so the strain can bud freely under at least one keeper's conditions; the growth tile holds Moderate because a single budding report that ends in a melt cannot carry a Fast claim on its own.

- The PE catalogue gives the speckled greens a group history that predates most current listings. Its narrative places speckled forms after the solid forms in the early import sequence, photographs a green speckled PE, and its taxonomy passage describes the Aspen form as a green speckled PE with white frosting while sorting all People Eaters into three or four disc-structure species groups with prominent slit mouths. The catalogue never names Green Stardust in the passages read this run, so this entry uses it for group structure and neighbour separation only, and says so.

- The light record splits, and both sides stay visible. One side is the PE group profile: AquariumDomain calls for medium to high lighting and a middle-to-top placement for the group's founding morph, while advising keepers in the same profile to start lower and move up after acclimation. A current wholesale listing for the neighbouring Green People Eater independently lands in the same place — moderate to high light, moderate flow, lower-to-middle or top placement, Easy care. The other side is the family record: Top Shelf Aquatics works zoanthids at 75–150 PAR, calls moderate light typically sufficient, and warns that high light demands slow acclimation to avoid bleaching. The tile follows the family band, and the group push is recorded here as the dissenting range.

- The feeding record carries the same honest split seen across the PE dossiers. The PE group profile holds that most People Eater morphs acquire the majority of their nutrition from photosynthesis and do not require supplemental feeding, with higher growth reported from very fine foods. The family guidance recommends regular fine-particle feeding for colour and growth. A Canreef keeper essay on the zoanthid order adds a size-based claim for the group — larger People Eater polyps readily accept meaty items such as brine shrimp, smaller morphs take fine particulate and dissolved organics — recorded here as one keeper's argued position, with the essay itself framing it as a disagreement with the photosynthesis-first view.

- The price record is an absence, recorded rather than filled. No current retail listing or keeper sale for Green Stardust People Eater was found in the sources read this run — searches under the full name and the Green Stardust PE short form returned the 2006 and 2010 keeper threads, the neighbouring Green People Eater wholesale listing, and an unrelated leather coral of a similar name. A PE-era name whose modern trade presence runs through old forum records will mostly move keeper-to-keeper, and this entry sets no price expectation from a neighbour's figures.