Those little white starfish....
- Thread starter tiffany89
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Asterina starfish!!
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It's seems there is not a "for sure" idea on what they do/don't do. Some people say they are beneficial to a tank & will help to clean the rocks of algae & detritus, while others say they will nibble on coral & such. There are a few species that will eat corals like zoos & acros, so I guess you got the lucky ones Tiffany!! Lol jk. A harlequin shrimp should take care of them
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I thought they only ate coraline algae? at least that's what mine eat.
I have hundreds of them, they are attracted to the coralline algae and slime on the frag plugs. I have not seen them eat any healthy coral.
Getting a Harlequin shrimp is a decision you want to read and think about carefully! After the asterina stars are gone you will have to supplement their diet with live chocolate chip starfish, about one a week and they eat them alive! I had my Harley for almost two years, feeding time was tough. I had a 20g just for 12 starfish and tried cutting the legs one at a time, rotating starfish. I fed a leg every 3rd day, 7 out of 12 died after the 2nd leg so that method did not work well. You will need to watch the water quality of your tank with something dying all the time. I have ten tanks so you would think I would not run out of asterina starfish but I did! I hope this will help, I'm not trying to scare you away from getting one, you just need to know the facts before you get one. Holley
Getting a Harlequin shrimp is a decision you want to read and think about carefully! After the asterina stars are gone you will have to supplement their diet with live chocolate chip starfish, about one a week and they eat them alive! I had my Harley for almost two years, feeding time was tough. I had a 20g just for 12 starfish and tried cutting the legs one at a time, rotating starfish. I fed a leg every 3rd day, 7 out of 12 died after the 2nd leg so that method did not work well. You will need to watch the water quality of your tank with something dying all the time. I have ten tanks so you would think I would not run out of asterina starfish but I did! I hope this will help, I'm not trying to scare you away from getting one, you just need to know the facts before you get one. Holley
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The darker color asterina starfish will most definitely eat healthy zoa's. I had a starfish population explosion last year that completely wiped out my zoa collection. My harlequin has almost wiped them out. I will donate him to someone in need when he is done.
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There are many different variations of these little stars. The ones I had where grey in color. I have watched firsthand as they climbed onto a perfectly healthy zoa polyp, wrap its arms around it and chow down. I know the zoa's were healthy because they were continually trying to grow new polyps but the number of starfish got to the point were it just couldn't replace was being eaten.
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I am having the same problem and from what I've read, there are many types of asterinas. One type in particular, Asterina wega, does eat zoanthids. There is really no way to tell them apart from their reef safe counterparts but google Asterina Wega and read the horror stories. I was planning on buying a harlequin shrimp for my tank and then passing on to another reefer but have decided against it. I would be sentencing the poor critter to death if not by starvation, by stress from moving from tank to tank. I just pick the stars off as I see them and make sure they don't break.
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