asterina wega war
- Thread starter saltcreep
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Harlequin shrimp, and some fish prey on them. I've only seen one or two in my tank, and my triggerfish and wrasse nom on them on sight...
First Post??? Welcome Aboard!!!
First Post??? Welcome Aboard!!!
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No Problemo... My first post was about a tank crash. LOL...
Keep us posted...
Keep us posted...
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Just make sure you have something to feed those harlequins after they finish off your astrinas cause the feed exclusively on echinoderms aka starfish urchins and the like
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Good point Pico...
saltcreep: I didn't know this was a smaller tank. How dense is your aquascape?
saltcreep: I didn't know this was a smaller tank. How dense is your aquascape?
I have a sand sifting star in my 29 biocube. It is about 3 1/2 inches. I kind of want to add a harlequin cus my tank is gonna be running fishless for a while, but I don't know if I like the idea of watching the shrimp eat my starfish one leg at a time while it regenerates limbs. Def wanted one before I knew they only ate starfish
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My tank had a few then dozens almost overnight. When I noticed them covering some of my zoas I declared war with a pair of long tweezers. I caught as many as I could and for a couple months now the population has been the occasional sighting.
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I believe the six-line, but check with google behind me to be sure before buying.
The linkia stars eat asterina as well...
Unlike the shrimp, the starfish should survive after all of the asterina are gone most of the time...
Edit: Just a heads up... I had a six-line that turned into a brown-eye and harassed all of my other fish after 6 months in the tank...
The linkia stars eat asterina as well...
Unlike the shrimp, the starfish should survive after all of the asterina are gone most of the time...
Edit: Just a heads up... I had a six-line that turned into a brown-eye and harassed all of my other fish after 6 months in the tank...
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if its just one id forego the fish and just use some tweezers or other form of manual removal just be carefull if you break it in half youll have two on your hands (if you drop them and lose them in the tank that is)
Edit: id probably turn off the pumps when you find it and then attempt removal that way if you do drop it it wont get blown away and lost
Edit: id probably turn off the pumps when you find it and then attempt removal that way if you do drop it it wont get blown away and lost
I was able to remove one last night with a long pair of tweezers. Unfortunately, it is not the same one as I saw previously. So there is at least one more that I know of. Caught him red handed wrapped around a zoa polyp! Everything I have researched yesterday said mixed emotions about if these little guys were actually the culprit. No one had actually caught them in the act. Only suspicions with polyps dying around the same time the stars showed up. Well now I have proof. They leave the zoas with the highest concentrations of the palytoxin alone and go for other less toxic species. I will stay up again tonight to try to rescue what's left of my zoa colony. Hated to have to come to work today. There should be " I'm having trouble with my tank" paid leave from work day or something
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Hmm I have a bunch of the asterinas as well but never seen them on my zoas. Thought I saw my sailfin tang eating them once but i think he was eating the hair algae that was next to one instead lol.
@ddaddy2420. Supposedly most of the asternias are harmless but a couple of the species , one of them being the asternia wega are definately soft coral predators. And all the cases I've been studying, they seem to especially like zoas. Bummer for my poor looking zoa colony
