Asterina stars: harmless cleanup crew or troublemakers?

[Sam7]

Do you leave them alone, remove them, or only act when they’re bothering corals? I had a mix of really dark colored ones and some white ones. I just kept manually removing them every night when they appeared after lights out. Still finding a few ocassionally after several months of removing them. I used a small shrimp net on the glass and long tweezers in my pipe organ corals, a very delicate operation on that coral. Fingers work well also but i try to minimize my hands in the tank.

 

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I usually leave them alone, haven't had any issues with them in my tanks including ones with zoanthids. I think if there are too many and they don't have enough food to go around they will mess with corals, but alot of inverts would as well.

 

[EricR]

I'd be most concerned at how rapidly they can multiply and can look unsightly (to me) once you have a ton of them.
*never had one but witnessed that happen to a nice tank at my LFS so I'm eternally afraid from just that

 

[Sam7]

I usually leave them alone, haven't had any issues with them in my tanks including ones with zoanthids. I think if there are too many and they don't have enough food to go around they will mess with corals, but alot of inverts would as well.

i had a lot and kept cleaing them out every night for weeks...must have throw out a couple thousand. Now maybe see one once in awhile

 

[Sam7]

I'd be most concerned at how rapidly they can multiply and can look unsightly (to me) once you have a ton of them.
*never had one but witnessed that happen to a nice tank at my LFS so I'm eternally afraid from just that

Yes, they multiply pretty fast. I had none for years then a few thousand......i guess they came in from something ordered. They were eating my pipe organ corals

 

[Subsea]

I don’t like them because they eat ornamental seaweed like Bortacladia.

 

[dnledman]

My angelfish love to eat them, the population stays in check and it provides some good enrichment for them.

 

[Sam7]

I don’t like them because they eat ornamental seaweed like Bortacladia.

Interesting...i did not know that

 

[Sam7]

My angelfish love to eat them, the population stays in check and it provides some good enrichment for them.

What type angel fish? Any pictures?

 

[DIYreefer]

In my experience they are harmless. I leave them alone.

 

[Sam7]

In my experience they are harmless. I leave them alone.

I thought the same but then there were so many

 

[DIYreefer]

I thought the same but then there were so many

They are definitely prolific reproducers but I’ve noticed that their population seems to fluctuate quite a bit. Sometimes I’ll see tons of them, sometimes hardly any at all.

 

[Sam7]

They are definitely prolific reproducers but I’ve noticed that their population seems to fluctuate quite a bit. Sometimes I’ll see tons of them, sometimes hardly any at all.

maybe hiding