Has anyone regretted adding asterina starfish to their tanks?

[saltyfish24]

Just curious. I have some small snails that reproduce on their own, and it's quite manageable. I like the idea of clean up crew that perpetuate in the tank. And I like the look of starfish.

Are asterina starfish pretty manageable?

 

[Gjedde]

I love mine. If they ever get too wild ill just get a harlequin shrimp.

 

[Idech]

Not really. They either go on their own, or you’ll be fooded with them. I used to pull them out of the tank by the dozen each day but didn’t even make a dent in their number.

Don’t add them, at least not voluntarily…

 

[winzig]

I don't know of anyone that adds them.
mine showed up out of the blue!

 

[exnisstech]

I regret having them and would never willingly add them they always just appear. I've witnessed them eating coral more than once so I treat them all as enemies even tho there are only supposed to be certain ones that eat coral. I had no problem for years before I saw them eating flesh off of an acro and also some zoas.

 

[Fish Fan]

There are many different species of Asterina stars, some of which definitely do munch some corals, particularly Zoas, if I remember correctly.

Here's one post from ISpeakForTheSeas:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/are-asterina-starfish-good-or-bad.957670/post-10927245

 

[fishface NJ]

I would not add them to my tank. If I saw one in my tank, it would be gone in a fast second.

 

[mfinn]

I've never added them. They just show up and some like my zoanthids so I am usually picking them out

 

[SonOfaGoat]

I have mini conches which are awesome cleaners and -asterina stars. I noticed the stars kept chilling on my gobstopper zoas. Then I saw the flesh was disappearing and I lost 6-8 large heads. Now I have 3 little ones left and the war on asterina stars is in full swing. Over the past week or two I've pulled out im sure well over 200, yet every so often I will find one right back at those gobstoppers trying to munch on the remaining heads. Mine have gray mottling on their bodies. Do not keep these.

In other news my mini conch population is doing great, they continue to spawn and im sure I have well over 100 in my 25g. I only clean my glass maybe once a month.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

There are many different species of Asterina stars, some of which definitely do munch some corals, particularly Zoas, if I remember correctly.

Here's one post from ISpeakForTheSeas:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/are-asterina-starfish-good-or-bad.957670/post-10927245

Just to add a little more info here:

Aquilonastra starfish (known in the hobby as "Asterina") - some species are fine/helpful, others have been known (at least when in large numbers) to go after corals (almost always zoas).

As a general rule, if the top of the starfish is primarily black, or if it has red/orangish spots on it (like the star in the link below), then it may be harmful:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/e...g-some-zoanthids.1062019/page-3#post-12665293

Some have been studied in lab settings and found to be herbivorous - Aquilonastra corallicola, for example:

"A. corallicola feeds on diatoms and green algae growing on the rock and glass walls of the aquaria."*

Others are thought to be either similar in diet to A. corallicola or to be biofilm feeders. For what it's worth, though, even known herbivores like Chocolate Chip Starfish and Blue Linckia Starfish (both of which are currently thought - with good reason - by the scientific community to be biofilm-feeders) are known to exhibit opportunistic predation in aquaria, with Chocolate Chip Stars eating pretty much anything they can catch, and Blue Linckias being known to prey on Aquilonastra stars, sponges, tunicates, and even (very rarely) corals.

So, while these can be predatory, it would seem they either only go after specific corals for specific reasons (such as the coral having a specific biofilm/microbiome that attracts it), or that they use them as a last-resort famine food.

*Source:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07924259.2010.548631

 

[obimace]

Just curious. I have some small snails that reproduce on their own, and it's quite manageable. I like the idea of clean up crew that perpetuate in the tank. And I like the look of starfish.

Are asterina starfish pretty manageable?

Mine come and go.Never touched anything

 

[SquidwardTentacles05]

Just curious. I have some small snails that reproduce on their own, and it's quite manageable. I like the idea of clean up crew that perpetuate in the tank. And I like the look of starfish.

Are asterina starfish pretty manageable?

I have two that came on my chaeto algae, they haven't multiplied.

 

[Marine Betta]

Just curious. I have some small snails that reproduce on their own, and it's quite manageable. I like the idea of clean up crew that perpetuate in the tank. And I like the look of starfish.

Are asterina starfish pretty manageable?

I would never willingly add them to a reef tank for the reasons cited. I guess they could be beneficial algae for control in FOWLR tank though especially if you had fish who would eat your more traditional CUC, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to add them.

 

[SquidwardTentacles05]

I would never willingly add them to a reef tank for the reasons cited. I guess they could be beneficial algae for control in FOWLR tank though especially if you had fish who would eat your more traditional CUC, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to add them.

My asterina haven't done anything yet, I've had them for almost 2 months and they have never gotten close to the coral.