Plague Of Starfish

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jahouli

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Hi,

These small, mutant, white starfish have been in my tank for the last 6 months. Despite syphoning some out, their numbers continue to grow. I hadn't noticed any ill affects unitl recently. My white star polyps which I've had for 14months have started to die off. On inspection there were a couple of the mutants attatched to them. I'm guessing they're the reason for the sudden die off.

What do I do? Just keep syphoning?
 
I think there is a type of shrimp in which its main food source is star-fish. I think its called Harlequin Shrimp. This type of shrimp may or may not eat the starfish you have. its up to the individual shrimp and what they like
 
Yes the harliquin does it starfish and it swill eat those you have.
But then what would you do once they had all been eaten, becuase they will only eat sea stars so you would have to either keep buying them or put some in your sump if you have one for them to reproduce.
 
Ive heard asterinas been blamed for eating all sorts of things. It is known that they consume coralline algae...it's possible they were "uprooting" your polyps to reach coralline underneath them?
 
Harlequin shrimp only eat star fish , like the ones in my av , they also make great tank mates in a reef
 
Something sort of neat that I remember reading about them is that they dont usually kill starfish either, they just take what they need from them and let them regenerate. Steady and reliable food source :) Of course...starfish dont usually regenerate in home aquariums if at all.
 
Something sort of neat that I remember reading about them is that they dont usually kill starfish either, they just take what they need from them and let them regenerate. Steady and reliable food source :) Of course...starfish dont usually regenerate in home aquariums if at all.

Tell that to my mutants.. I have both blue and pink ones they split regular and I often see just 2 legs walking up the glass. I can also confirm that they love coraline. I let a few small patches grow on the back glass and the stars soon found it and cleared it within a few hours. Thats probably why even after over a year for my live rock, it still only has partial covering of coraline.
At the moment mine are'nt so much of an issue but I would imagine that if there numbers grew too many, my coraline would disapear rapidly so I'm keeping a close eye on them.
I hate killing anything living but I would recomend if you have too many to reduce the numbers quickly to stop the rampage and spreading.
 
Oh...that's where all my coraline is going. I've been adding iodine, thinking there is a deficiency, but that makes sense now.
 
I wanted to get hold of some asterina but that are really rare around my area. Then I found out the possibility that they would munch my corals and I thought the urchin does a good enough job at munching my mushrooms why bother with anything else.

Regards
 
I have a tank dedicated to a one starfish and an adopted anemone, I was thinking of letter asterinas run wild in there.
 
I can also confirm that they love coraline. I let a few small patches grow on the back glass and the stars soon found it and cleared it within a few hours. Thats probably why even after over a year for my live rock, it still only has partial covering of coraline.
At the moment mine are'nt so much of an issue but I would imagine that if there numbers grew too many, my coraline would disapear rapidly

Do they??Glad the ones in my tank haven't heard that, lol! I have loads of these little stars in my 45gallon(have counted 43 on the glass at one time before and there must be more on the rocks) and I have absolutely loads of coraline on my rock, back glass and equipment!! I like the little mutants myself and as Tyler said the white ones won't be eating corals, much more likely to be cleaning off the film of algea that grows on the front glass.
september08001.jpg


Please don't kill my brothers :unsure: We're innocent!
september08002.jpg
 
You guys are acting way to generalized. First:

There are many types of asterina, some are harmless, some develop a taste for corals

Second:

Some starfish regenerate quickly in the right conditions, and may even reproduce (sometimes brittle and serpent stars, but they arent true starfish, asterina are quite hardy and reproduce fast, and chocolate chip starfish are a bit easier than say a fromia since its easier to feed a chocolate chip starfish).

Third:
A harlequin shrimp will decimate the asterina population in days, but without a steady food source (and asterinas dont count unless you literally have hundreds that doubles its population daily) they probably will starve and die. And about every starfish you buy to feed it, basically means 2-10 starfish had to die for you to get that one starfish, then, every harlequin shrimp you kill, means about 10 harlequin shrimp died for you to get that one harlequin shrimp, and thats pretty bad for the ecosystem seeing that harlequins are used to keep wild starfish population down.

Basically, dont get harlequins until they are tank bred (which may be in the near future).
 

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