what is in my mom's tank

fishyhubbyandwife

fishyhubbyandwife

Member
my mom posted this in the fish only messege board. she's new at the whole expierence of the messege board.
Clownlover posted:We have a 20 gal tank. We have what look like, two baby star fish. We were told at the fish store that these are really bad. Especially if you have any coral. They appeared on the glass one day and now that we know we have them we see them on the rocks. What are they? Should we rid our tank of them? A star has 5 legs, these have 6. Thanks for your help.
her coral is button polyps. they have not noticed any "chomps" take outta the polyps.
any help with this would be great.
FishyWife
 
viper_930

viper_930

Active Member
They are asternia stars. Some people have reported having them munch on their SPS corals, but other have had no problem with them, probably different species of asternias. They reproduce quickley.
 
d12monkey

d12monkey

Member
They is bad for reefs :D
Seriously if you look on the GARF website you'll see the damage they do to corals. By the way it's .org not .com
Thery multiple very rapidly and you can loose large portions of corals very rapidly.
 
viper_930

viper_930

Active Member
Like I said, some people have had asternias that munched on their corals, but other have had no problems with them.
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
Most experienced hobbyists will say that the "garf" hype in regard to these stars in not warrented. I have had asterinas in my reef for several years now and they have never been a problem. There may be a specific species or type that tend to munch specific corals but the only place I've seen information indicating they do damage is from the "garf" site. A search here on these forums or via google will turn up multitudes of experienced hobbyists that have had no problems with them. They are numerous in my system and appear to scavenge detrius and excess foods....good to have in my opinion and a contributing part of the diversity of my reef.:thinking:
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Not all seastars have 5 arms - so nothing to worry about there.
As for GARF -
Garf Smarf.
There hype is totally unwarranted and is, IMO, irresponsible. The overwhelming majority of people who have these stars report no issues with them whatsoever, and that goes for some of the 'big names' in the hobby. GARFs tendancy just to lump all of these stars together - when there are likely numerous cryptic (difficult to distinguish) species with different diets - is idiotic. Most, the overwhelming majority, are harmless surface film feeders and cruise the glass and rocks. The majority of hobbyists would agree with that as well.
I have loads of these stars and don't have any SPS corals. Hardly any corals, in fact.
Very few people encounter the coral eating kind. It is virtually impossible for the hobbyist to identify them based on color or number of arms. It stands to reason that the SPS eating stars would arrive on SPS eating corals. So if you have SPS corals, and a bunch of these stars sitting on top of the coral, you may have the bad one....or they may be attracted to a dying piece. But most people have the harmless one's.
Furthermore, some report these stars eating coralline. This is a potential issue, but it regrows quickly in most cases. Still the potential for this rare situation again does not warrant extreme measures. If you are worried, take them as you see them and put them in the sump.
It is nearly impossible, FWIW, to remove these from a tanks. GARF's suggestion that highly specialized predators, such as Harlequin Shrimp be used is irresponsible. There is no need to disrupt the tank unless there is proof that they are doing harm.
Just cool additions to a tank, IMO :)
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
i have a ton of them and i see no damage. but i have yet to see one with all the arms. i guess ill have a lot more soon lol
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I think that was unnecessary. :( We get all sorts of interesting creatures roaming the tank which is part of the fun of the hobby. If we went around trying to get everything out that might pose a risk of some sort, it would take most of the life out of the tank, IMO. I find these stars to be good little additions and am more than happy to see them around. I would be interested to know what things the LFS tells her are OK.
 
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