I’m not sure how normal it is, but I don’t know that I’ve heard of someone having these stars in their seahorse tank before.I know I have a lot of questions but I've got another!
So I've noticed asterina starfish latching onto my seahorses and it seems to irritate them. When they get off they leave a white mark. I got a harlequin shrimp but is this normal?
The white marks don't go away very quick so they're probably bite marks, right? The starfish have overrun the system lol. I had to get a harlequin shrimp to handle it. The marks are little white dots. I'll see if I can get a picture. They aren't really in a starfish shape lolI’m not sure how normal it is, but I don’t know that I’ve heard of someone having these stars in their seahorse tank before.
When you say they leave a white mark, does the white mark fade quickly (within seconds/minutes) or does it stay?
If it stays, I’d guess you’re seeing feeding scars from where the “Asterinas” (technically Aquilonastras) are eating - presumably, they’d be eating biofilm off of the seahorse (rather than trying to eat the seahorse itself), but the everted stomach of the starfish may coincidentally be partially digesting (damaging) the skin of the seahorse as well in the process (which would be pretty uncomfortable for the seahorse for obvious reasons, and would explain why the stars climbing on them irritates them).
Picture “d” in this figure (from the link below) shows some feeding scars from a different starfish species (Nidorellia armata) in a patch of coralline algae - this may help you figure out if the white marks on your seahorses look like feeding scars or not.
Distribution and feeding ecology of sea stars in the Galápagos rocky subtidal zone
Sea stars (class Asteroidea) can play powerful and wide-ranging roles as consumers of algae and other prey in benthic ecosystems worldwide. In the Gal…www.sciencedirect.com
I'm not sure. It could be feeding scars, it could be the seahorse camouflaging somehow, or it could be something else entirely.
