The dreaded asterina stars

Discussion in 'Inverts' started by gabbagabbawill, Apr 7, 2011.

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  1. VooDoo

    VooDoo Fire Shrimp

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    Only some are bad. If you have corals and notice the stars hanging around them, most likely they are the bad ones. But most of them are algae eaters :) I have some in my tank and I dont mind them at all
     
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  3. 2in10

    2in10 Super Moderator

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    No there is only one species supposedly that eats coral. There are plenty that eat coralline algae though. That one species is very rarely found in the trade. The OP was extremely unlucky.
     
  4. 2in10

    2in10 Super Moderator

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    +1 I have had the same experience.
     
  5. SushiGirl

    SushiGirl Barracuda

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    Just FYI, counting legs means nothing. They drop them all the time to reproduce. You wouldn't know if it had 5 legs or 7 and dropped 2 LOL.
     
  6. gabbagabbawill

    gabbagabbawill Pajama Cardinal

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    This may be true... but there are two distinct kinds of these stars in my tank...

    one is smaller, solid white and ALWAYS has six distinct legs (even though the legs are not uniform in size).

    the other is mottled, white w/ black & grey spots and has anywhere from 2-7 distinct legs.

    The latter type is what I found at the base of the green monti cap where it appeared to be eating it from behind where there was tissue missing in the area it was in...

    While I can't prove it was causing harm to my corals, there are plenty of rumors stating that these asterinas are predatory and I didn't want to take my chances.

    I haven't added any corals or live rock to my tank in over 6 months, and while I was used to seeing the white six-legged ones, mostly in my sump appearing to eat algae, which seemed harmless enough, these mottled ones just recently started popping up in large numbers.
     
  7. Renee@LionfishLair

    Renee@LionfishLair 3reef Sponsor

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  9. mikev15101

    mikev15101 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    That's pretty cool, I was always under the impression they did not eat those type of stars but as noted they mostly eat the CC stars. Learn something new everyday. Great insight, I as well have hundreds of the stars, always wondered if they ate anything but they are all over so I don t no know they are just wondering over the corals or eating them. Keep us updated on the population count. (Whatever is visible that is)