Possible Starfish Infestation?

[xamz]

I just set up my first saltwater tank about a week ago. I bought live rock with a hitch hiker emerald crab on it and today found this.

It looks like a little star fish with an odd number of legs. Is this a parasite or another good hitch hiker from the live rock?

 

[Connie]

It is an Astrea Star. They usually hang around on the rocks and glass. I have never had one feed on any of my coral, but I do keep a look out for it. I read somewhere that the blue ones will sometimes prey on coral, but I have many blue ones and they never have.

 

[xamz]

Do they multiply in great numbers? Should I terminate it while I have the chance?

 

[Connie]

That's totally up to you. Most of them should die off since your tank is new. A few will survive and yes, they can multiply pretty rapidly. If you dip your rocks in Coral RX it will terminate them; however, it will terminate the critters you want to keep as well.

 

[jaytizzle]

You should probably yank it. It won't likely do any harm but it won't likely do any good either. Since you're relatively new, you would do well to operate under the old saying, "If in doubt, throw it out".

 

[xamz]

Will they over run my small 20 gallon tank? Also will other fish eat them? If you know more about them I'd love to know. I'm kind of in the dark about what will happen and want to decide if these are a good thing or a bad thing so i can take action as soon as possible

 

[butts182]

get it out of there. not a horrible pest, but a nuisance. some complain about them eating zoas. if you don't get them all out and you never can, you should get a harlequin shrimp in the future. they eat those asterina starfish. but the shrimp will die when most or all of the starfish are gone, so make sure to get rid of them when they are gone.

 

[Stinger]

+1 asterina starfish, i had one show up on my new tank after5 weeks cycling. have not seen it since, I think he died

 

[Reef Breeders]

I have a few of those, they multiply relatively slowely and arent around too much.

 

[steamer51]

I've had some in my tank since it was set up in 2006 and never had any problem. Mostly you never see them hidden in the rocks but sometimes they will eat the algae off the glass as your's is in the picture. I consider them a pleasant part of my CUC and the population is stabilized by the food available to them. I have read that some varieties will eat coral but I suspect what they have seen is a detrivore eating something that is dead or dying. I enjoy them because they stay small and I like diversity in my tank. Some might think them ugly because they rarely have the five arms you expect but that is one of the things I find interesting. I am not your average reefer since I love my bristleworms and think they are beautiful with they pink bodies and bright purple line through their gut. I'm usually watching them crawl out of of everywhere when I feed instead of watching the fish. I can watch the fish any time.

 

[Rockadile]

really up to you, generally they wont bother anything and like said above their population will be controlled by the food available to them. personally I find them great additions and once your tank is well established and you find them by the hundreds you can add this little critter to control them.
Harlequin Shrimp

 

[Salty D]

I had bad luck with asterinas. There got to be several hundred in my nano. Some of them got to be the size of a dime and started munching softies. I let a few of them chew on a couple trees and it only took 2 days to go through a base as big around as my finger. I now have a harley and they are almost gone.....THANK GOD!

 

[kschweer]

I wish that I had removed them from the begining. At first I thought they were cool but soon they started to multiply rather quickly in my case. The last water change I did I removed about 100 in my 50 gallon. They also ate a bunch of my zoas. They ate 20+ LA lakers, 10+ fruitloops and 10+ goblins fire. This is just my experience with them.

 

[Salty D]

I actually let a few of them sit on a zoa polyp and the next day the polyp,mat and everything was gone. Only the large ones though. They little 1/8" ones would get on them and when they moved the polyp opened up the next day. So many times I've heard "they are eating dead or dying tissue". The trees that mine cut would reattach to rocks or glass in days and keep growing. And the stumps on the glass would regrow. There was nothing wrong with the trees, just bad stars. I think I still have pics of them chewing on some trees..I'll look for them later.

 

[epicenter]

Yank them out fast as you see them I have had them eat zoas before contrary to what many say. I have witnessed these buggers munching my zoas. The Harlequin shrimp will indeed wipe them out if they get to be a plague.

 

[DaveA]

Do **NOT** get rid of them. They are beneficial as part of the CUC. So are the bristleworms. Keep them both. See this:

FAQs about Asterina (tiny, white...) Sea Stars 1

 

[epicenter]

Do **NOT** get rid of them. They are beneficial as part of the CUC. So are the bristleworms. Keep them both. See this:

FAQs about Asterina (tiny, white...) Sea Stars 1

Tell this guy that..
gablett

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I have all sorts of different colored ones. Its the bluish grey ones that im fighting. I can watch them crawl to the top of the polyp and cause it to close then it latches onto the closed polyp and it just disolves. Its not a fluke iv watched them decimate whole colonies. I try to pick them by hand but in a 220 there's a lot of area and alot of them. Plus sometimes I get them too late and the colony melts away. I know its not nudis, I've dipped and inspected every colony and its always those asterinas on the polyp itself. That's why im thinking I need something to decimate them. I have a blue linkia I was gonna see if my lfs would just trade me the star for the shrimps and when the stars are gone trade back. I know the lfs very well so I think that would work unless those shrimp are very hit and miss as to eating them. Im just sick of losing zoas. Its never the white or green ones.

I too have had them destroy more than one zoa colony before I figured out what was going on because every one kept saying they will not & do not harm/eat zoas. If in doubt yank it out.

 

[epicenter]

Another link to look at.

CoralPedia.com :: PREDATOR - Asterina Starfish!!

 

[arotbart]

what about sps....I have a mature tank, and just had a spawning situation...I have a few of the white ones and a ton of the blue/greys....I saw one on the edge of some dead tissue on a montipora and freaked out, and I remembered reading about Harlequin shrimp to control...so I purchased one, and the second I put him him in he was munching on them. I have a 180g mostly sps tank, and I probably going to get one maybe two more just to control the population. The population just exploded last week out of no where.......

 

[Salty D]

The tiny white stars didnt seem to do any harm. It's these ones that chewed up corals.

Here is a pic of one chewing a tree off the glass. You can see another tree behind it laying on the sand that got cut down the day before.

So many people have told me "your corals must have been dead or dying if the stars are eating them"....horsecrap!!! Some of those trees I threw out because I have so many but some I let be and they reattached to rock or glass and continued growing. With the zoas, I pulled off a big star and the polyp was gone. Left it alone till the next day and pulled it off again and the stalk and mat was gone along with a polyp that was next to the first. I had the stars for 2 years with no issues and out of the blue the big ones became destructive. What caused it...no idea. But I can tell you it wont happen again. Here was my solution to the problem.

[video=youtube;ZDK0MGyn5ZE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDK0MGyn5ZE[/video]

For anyone who gets one of these shrimp...once the asterinas are gone you will have to feed the harley so if you're not ready for that commitment manual removal is the only other option.