blazehok68
Active Member
within the last 3 months, i have been noticing an infestation of these guys. are there any adverse affects of having too many?
asterina starfish question
- Thread starter blazehok68
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lightfrommoon
New Member
They can hurt your Acropora if you have any. If they are damaging it, the Acropora will turn white at the bottom where its attached to rock. those stars also like Stylophora and Pocillopora. The answer is Harlequin shrimp, but they will eat brittle stars too unfortunately.
lightfrommoon
New Member
If they arent bothering anything though, they should be fine..... i imagine
candycane
Active Member
SOME of them eat corals. You could possibly, if you wanted to, mark each one with a small tattoo and watch for the ones that eat coral tissue and then just toss those out? Just kidding. But seriously, SOME of them will just attach to a coral, any coral, and start chewing away.
blazehok68
Active Member
all i have is soft corals right now. so harlequin shrimp would eat them? i just dont want to lose them.
ewetmill
Member
Harlequins will eat them, but once the asterinas are gone, you will have to buy Chocolate chip stars to feed the shrimp. BTW, Harlequins won't eat brittles because they aren't fast enough to catch them. Plus, they only eat one star at a time, so they won't even try for the brittles if they are well fed.
Not the best picture, but here is one of my Harlequins with an asterina clinging for dear life to a piece of crushed coral.
Not the best picture, but here is one of my Harlequins with an asterina clinging for dear life to a piece of crushed coral.
ophiura
Active Member
Most Asterina are harmless and do not become predatory over time. I agree, it may indicate an issue with the nutrient load in the tank.
It is possible you could see some impact on your coralline algae, but this is unlikely in most tanks to be a real issue. Rather few are threats to SPS or soft corals, and they do not "become" problems...they are predatory, or they are not. Rather few, all considering, experience SPS eating species...though you can not easily ID them by size, color or arm number (seastar EXPERTS can not do this, BTW). I would say most people with LR have these, but very very very very few have issues with them.
It is possible you could see some impact on your coralline algae, but this is unlikely in most tanks to be a real issue. Rather few are threats to SPS or soft corals, and they do not "become" problems...they are predatory, or they are not. Rather few, all considering, experience SPS eating species...though you can not easily ID them by size, color or arm number (seastar EXPERTS can not do this, BTW). I would say most people with LR have these, but very very very very few have issues with them.
