Asterina's chowing down.

[omard]

While the jury is still out on the danger of Asterina Starfish. Some varieties appear safe, some not.

I have finally decided the ones inhabiting my tank are the benign ones.

Only issue I have is keeping the population of them under control.

I must have pulled thousands of them from tank over years.

Usually do when siphoning water during water changes when they are easy to suck up off glass.

Literally hundreds overflows, which probably is a good thing.

They are great glass cleaners.

Here is pic of current "herd" hard at work eating algae off side of tank. No harm to coraline at all.

Close up,

Have decided to just live with them, keeping population under control so snails still have enough to eat.

For some reason they mostly like one side of tank more then anywhere else.

Lighting?

Who knows.

[reef_guru]

Harlequin Shrimp - Hymenocera picta

[omard]

Originally Posted by reef_guru

Harlequin Shrimp - Hymenocera picta

My harlys were not much interested in them...

Were just Sand star gluttons.

Got so spoiled, they would hardly bother with chocolate chip stars unless really starving.

May have gone after asterinas if I let them get hungry enough, but never did want to take risk.

[MDeth]

^ Everything I've read seems about 70/30% luck...guess which was the lower..

[omard]

Asterina Wega

Nardoa and Asterina spp Sea Stars

There is some controversy over the Asterina species sea stars, which can multiply to great numbers in reef aquariums. Most aquarists report no problems with them, but some claim that they eat SPS corals and make every effort to remove them. There are more than one species of Asterina and it's speculated that some species may be harmful. It's also speculated that the Asterina sea stars will consume SPS corals once they reach a certain density. I happened to put a Nardoa species sea star into a small reef aquarium that contains a large population of Asterina sea stars. I discovered that the Nardoa sea star regularly consumed the Asterina sea stars. The Nardoa sea star san be a good biological control for those aquarists that want to reduce their population of Asterina sea stars.
GREG SCHIEMER

Starfish: Considerations for the Common (and Commonly Misunderstood) Varieties

Asterina sea stars have been accused, unfairly at times, for preying on coral tissue. While some individuals appear to eat some desirable reef invertebrates, the problem may be a simple matter of an opportunistic predator adapting to a change in the available, preferred foods (worms, algae).

Returning to our example of the common, small Asterina species found in some reef tanks, these sea stars in recent years have suffered, unfairly I might add, the reputation of being risky or just plain un-safe in the reef. This is interesting because for many years prior to that, they were not only regarded as harmless, but beneficial! What happened? Did they all change their voter registrations overnight? No, the answer really is quite simple. It also explains why some other "controversial" reef invertebrates have contradictory reputations like Mithrax/Mithraculus crabs. Many such creatures are opportunistic feeders. While they favor one type of prey that is convenient or popular to us, like sand bed worms, brown diatoms or bubble algae, they will adapt to eating other food items following the reduction or absence of a preferred food item. Thus, the reef keeper with a persistent growth of microalgae in a garden reef display will likely have less trouble with misbehaving omnivores than another aquarist with an aggressively skimmed and scrubbed tank that supports little growth of the matter. In a phrase, the hungrier that a so-called "reef-safe" creature gets, the less "reef-safe" that creature becomes. In the case of Asterina, many years ago during the bare-bottomed, nutrient poor Berlin style era of reef keeping, reef husbandry with early protein skimmers and limited nutrient export processes was not as efficient as it is today; diatoms and other nutritious growths grew quickly in our tanks. And Asterina were not considered un-safe by hobbyists.

Anthony Calfo

Originally Posted by Matt Rogers

Well this is not the first time I've seen my asterina starfish on my montipora but I did notice the trail behind it this time. I am about to declare them guilty of slowing munching my Montiporas...

but first, I submit pics to the court of 3reef. What say you?

Originally Posted by Gresham

guilty

[amcarrig]

Originally Posted by omard

My harlys were not much interested in them...

Were just Sand star gluttons.

Got so spoiled, they would hardly bother with chocolate chip stars unless really starving.

May have gone after asterinas if I let them get hungry enough, but never did want to take risk.

Were? Would? Do you no longer have the shrimp?

[omard]

Originally Posted by amcarrig

Were? Would? Do you no longer have the shrimp?

Sad to say they are no longer with me.

Fell victim to overtemp disaster I had couple of months ago.

Will replace as soon as I see "right" pair at LFS.

I was really attached to those little guys.

[amcarrig]

Well, that stinks. So sorry to hear that

[Tangster]

Originally Posted by reef_guru

Harlequin Shrimp - Hymenocera picta

I'll say it one more time they do not eat these type of star fish.. Period I have never seen or had anyone I'd really listen to tell me different.. I recall the site Graf ran off with they had found a fix for them But nobody I ever knew as I said had the Harlequins to eat them . I my self had the shrimps and the stars came along after the fact.. I starved several pairs to death hoping to see them get hungry enough to eat them . Nadda Zip shrimps are gone the stars rule . I on the other had have also never had the stars to hurt or harm any corals and again any one who I would listen to have also have never had them to harm a coral. I think they are just cleaning off dead tissue from a sick or weak coral and just get the blame.

[omard]

Originally Posted by amcarrig

Well, that stinks...

Really!



Never, never, never put complete trust in a digital thermometer!!!