Long Term STN and Asterina Starfish

[-Logzor]

Here you can see several on my setosa. Though, I noticed the setosa was turning white at the base long before the star fish jumped on it. I've seen them on dying acros also.


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What interesting is that another user posted that their starfish never touched his dying SPS. I think it clear in your case that they're just eating the dead tissue. My question is, even if this is the case don't they make the problem worse by irritating the healthy tissue?

In my case they seem to take a little nibble and the the coral gets a bacterial infection and begins to STN. I haven't seen them swarm my corals like your showing in the picture though.

 

[Chameleon]

mine look a lot like your logzor...

 

[-Logzor]

I've been picking them out like crazy and it's made a big dent in their population. Going to get a harlequin shrimp from a friend later on to finish them off.

 

[Pkunk35]

Just saw this thread and wanted to chime in. I just put a Harlequin shrimp in my tank last week due to the number of asternia star fish in my 90. I can grow coraline alge on the glass in my tank like nobodys business but on my rocks forget it. I'm thinking that there is a direct correlation between the lack of coraline alge and the large number of asternia. I used to have nice purple rocks and even dose stronium to feed the coraline yet it doesn't grow on the rocks. I have also noticed on a couple of my acros spots where flesh is gone. I've looked for aefw and haven't seen any I also haven't seen any red bugs. So this leads me to beleive that the star fish have changed their diets to survive in my tank. I would like to post a picture of the ones I have if that is ok with you Logzor.

I've researched this as I had the same problem in my tank and I do believe asterina can interfere with coralline algae growth as well. From what I read no one is sure if they eat the coralline or just cover the rocks so that light does not reach the coralline.


Logzor, good move with the harlequin. You're going to love him when he starts doing your job for you and picking out the asterinas.

 

[islander84]

Tagging along.... have been experiencing very similar issues! Almost exact same thing......

 

[islander84]

Do you have any lps? And if so how have they been through this situtaion?

 

[-Logzor]

Yes I have numerous LPS including acans, scroll, etc and they have zero problems.

 

[-Logzor]

Are your LPS getting torn up or just your SPS?

 

[islander84]

It has been a very complicated battle.....

For the aterinas i have seen them on dead skeleton as well as healthy flesh on sps and lps..... cant say they were munching on the flesh but they were there.....

The acros have been sparatic with behavior.... some look excellent, some have lost a little color, some look really thin fleshed and pale, some have random stn but not the same as if they were being munched on by bugs( had them before and know exactly what they do). None of them hardly ever stn from base its usually from tips or sides...... some recover and some slowly wither away, every now and then one might rtn but rarely....

The lps.... meteor shower faded out and had tiny bleached spots all over it then recovered...then week or so later receded some then recovered then receded again....

Chalice slowly receded then stopped receding....

My po4 was 0.00 on hanah so i pulled gfo and started feeding a little more and over last couple months i have noticed an improvement in some stuff....stn seems to have stopped so far

 

[-Logzor]

That is very interesting. One day I woke up to see my sunset monti with zero color while everything else in the tank was fine. I found a starfish on the body of the colony but no flesh missing. I'm thinking it was swarmed by starfish or something because it recovered a couple of days later.

 

[islander84]

The same exact thing happened only to my meteorshower..... this is very odd.....whats puzzling me is its happening to my sps and lps....

 

[DrTerro]

THAT'S WHAT's UP!!!! Ok I have similar thoughts and problems just as above. 100% they eat the Coraline alg. I know this because I have watched them on a spot and when they move from that spot, it is then white and dead. This is a constant thing in my tank and I throw them out about 20-30 at a time. Then after 2-3 days I go down to about 2-3 a day if that! If I skip a day or two of this number goes back up to 20-30. This is an epidemic if you ask me. LOL Also I know that one fell on a chalice frag and I lost half..... yes. Not sure exactly what happened but the Asterina star was on its back. I have been wanting to add in a harlequin shrimp to help. But my question has been, what are their effects if any on brittle star fish within the system. Thanks

 

[-Logzor]

I think they're like robots. Like those robot vacuum cleaners, whatever they land on or move past they just start munching. They'll just eat whatever starfish don't care.

 

[Pkunk35]

THAT'S WHAT's UP!!!! Ok I have similar thoughts and problems just as above. 100% they eat the Coraline alg. I know this because I have watched them on a spot and when they move from that spot, it is then white and dead. This is a constant thing in my tank and I throw them out about 20-30 at a time. Then after 2-3 days I go down to about 2-3 a day if that! If I skip a day or two of this number goes back up to 20-30. This is an epidemic if you ask me. LOL Also I know that one fell on a chalice frag and I lost half..... yes. Not sure exactly what happened but the Asterina star was on its back. I have been wanting to add in a harlequin shrimp to help. But my question has been, what are their effects if any on brittle star fish within the system. Thanks

Harlequin do not eat brittlestars, they eat fleshy stars while the small bongo shrimp eat only brittle stars. I have both a harlequin and tons of brittle stars. I'd say go for it!

 

[Sahin]

Harlequin do not eat brittlestars, they eat fleshy stars while the small bongo shrimp eat only brittle stars. I have both a harlequin and tons of brittle stars. I'd say go for it!

I have read exact reports from owners of both critters.