Asterina predator - harlequin alternative?

[sawdonkey]

For the last few months, my tank has been overrun with asterina starfish. I’ve never done zoas before, so I thought I’d give them a try and bought some. I can absolutely confirm that the asterinas in my tank are the polyp eating kind.

Now, I know that harlequin shrimp will eat them....but, I have a pink face wrasse as well as two triggers. The shrimp wouldn’t last five minutes.

Does anyone know of any other asterina predators that my fish wouldn’t kill? I do have some Mexican turbo snails that they don’t bother.

 

[deadantstomp]

Red thorny starfish (Echinaster echinophorus) will eat them and they are fun to have around the tank. I kept one in a reef for years and never saw it mess with any corals or other inverts, but I've seen mixed reports about them potentially going after tube worms, sponges, and mollusks. One random note, although they do prey on some sponges, they do not eat red tree sponges. They will eliminate asterina stars pretty quickly. Mine would eat pellets and left over food after it wiped out the asterinas.

Blue Linckias will eat them too.

Whether or not the triggers would munch on starfish depends on the trigger.

And bumble bee shrimp eat asterinas but they would stand less chance than a harlequin shrimp.