Tiny Starfish
- Thread starter mn1467
- Start date
spmnarciso
Active Member
We all got them.
F
fever
Guest
have about fifty of them in my tank
spmnarciso
Active Member
Alot of people actually buy those to seed their sandbeds in their refugiums,so YES, GOOD THING!
ophiura
Active Member
These stars people are showing are Asterina stars, common hitch hikers on LR and quick to reproduce in our tanks. Almost always considered very good to have, or at least harmless....rarely is there a species encountered that eats SPS corals (but it is impossible to tell unless you actually see them, well, eating your coral). They are at most the size of a nickel, but often the size of a penny or smaller. They are not juveniles of things like chocolate chip stars, which do not reproduce in our tanks (except by getting an arm and much of the rest of the animal chopped off).
There are also tiny brittlestars that are common and stay small. Amphipholis - very good for a sand bed, and reproduce well in our tanks. It is also relatively rare for large store bought brittlestars to reproduce in captivity.
There are also tiny brittlestars that are common and stay small. Amphipholis - very good for a sand bed, and reproduce well in our tanks. It is also relatively rare for large store bought brittlestars to reproduce in captivity.
pmcrazi
Member
Thank you for the information, I notice new little stars ( or parts of stars) on the glass all the time. Is it because I have CC that they are more on the glass? or just more noticable there. Glad to hear they are a good thing, after that aiptasia outbreak, I couldn't bear more bad news...thanks
Karen
Karen
S
scriggle
Guest
i had a baby starfish in my tank and i thought it was cool, so i kept it. one month later, i finally noticed that my tank was covered in them and they were consuming all my coraline at a rapid rate. i have since then picked off with a tweezers at least 150 of them. they are really small, have any # of legs, and its very hard to notice the really little babies. look up asterina star in wetwebmedia.com and explore through that and youll see some pics. they reproduce by dropping their legs along the way, making more babies all the time, constantly. my tank took a real blow from them. 3 weeks later i still pick off at least 2 a day. i recommend taking out every rock and picking off as many as you can.
chipmaker
Active Member
Asterina stars, yet another critter that a lot of folks deem as undesireable....The 2 local LFS here both routinely pull them out and toss em in the trash and refer to them as parasitic stars. My friends lfs uses harlequin (IIRC) shrimp to control them......the consensus of other forums seem to viiew them as good, other forums as bad.....Personally I like em, and have yet to see any damage or problems caused by them.....Only thing I do not like about them is some are pretty well deformed.one long arm 2 or 3 or whatever short arms , just 4 arms, 6 arms etc etc.....but the ones you find that are all uniform and not deformed are nice to say the least. Matters not to me if they are deformed though, I do not remove any of them.
lovethesea
Active Member
most find them harmless and leave them be.
ophiura
Active Member
I have a tank full of these stars and see no reason to remove them. In some cases, they become an issue, but you will find that most advanced hobbyists have these stars and report no issues. Worth keeping an eye on but I would not buy into the hype that many push that they will all eat coral, etc. A few people do report issues with coralline algae but I would also ask that people make sure that their conditions are suitable for the growth of coralline.
Mostly these animals are surface film grazers. If you have too many, you may want to reconsider the amount of food or bioload in the tank, IMO.
Mostly these animals are surface film grazers. If you have too many, you may want to reconsider the amount of food or bioload in the tank, IMO.
ctgretzky9
Member
I have dozens of these. Never saw them doing anything destructive.
If the tank is healthy, they should never be a problem. Coraline growth would far exceed any destruction of it with proper parameters (alk-calc-mag-pH)
If the tank is healthy, they should never be a problem. Coraline growth would far exceed any destruction of it with proper parameters (alk-calc-mag-pH)
dmcrete
Member
i have a 150 gallon aquarium,
i have lots of baby stars, i watch them 24 7 and all i ever see them doing is reaching out for food, i also have ten peppermint shrimp, when the little stars get to be a certain size they hunt them down and eat them, i have watched this several times, they literally dig and pick them out of what ever crevice the star happens to be in, SO i feel they r a good food source for my critters, If any one is having a problem with them, get your self MORE than one peppermint shrimp, and they will keep the stars under con trol!!
i have lots of baby stars, i watch them 24 7 and all i ever see them doing is reaching out for food, i also have ten peppermint shrimp, when the little stars get to be a certain size they hunt them down and eat them, i have watched this several times, they literally dig and pick them out of what ever crevice the star happens to be in, SO i feel they r a good food source for my critters, If any one is having a problem with them, get your self MORE than one peppermint shrimp, and they will keep the stars under con trol!!
