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yours are just true vegetarians, my friend Appropriate too when you just have a few and they do not grow fast...like so many other creatures with potentially high fecundity, they can only wax with the presence of adequate food. if you dont have an algae problem, you wont be growing a huge population of Asterina. Enjoy them
Yikes...horrifying to see an obligate echinoderm tube-feet eating organism recommended so freely After the Asterina are eradicated, what exactly will you be feeding the harlequin shrimp?
Calm, rational thinking, my friends. Look at the form and function of the Asterina's mouthparts...also look at its behaviors. It proliferates rapidly in most every tank, and yet droves of fishes and corals are not missing. in fact, you cant actually name whats missing can ya as they proliferate. But they must be growing from something. And they come out mostly at night. In fact, if you turn the lights on suddenly many hours after dark, you will see them all over the glass and rocks of course. Any hard substrates. Sometimes you can spot them snoozing by day below the sand on the glass...and then rise straight up that glass and out of the sand at night.
They principally eat diatoms, my friends. Brown algae. We all have it. On our glass, rocks, etc.
They are opportunistic though. I have indeed seen them on corals...sick and dying corals.
They have an undeserved bad rap. Its ironic to eradicate a "pest" population of them when their very presence in pest numbers indicates that you have a water quality problem or the beginning of one (ironically even more so indicated by the corals that start to die and get eaten by the helpful Asterina!).
They dont grow from thin air (or pure water, as it were) any more than Aiptasia do. If you have excess nutrients (and subsequently low Redox, flat pH and the other baggage that comes with that slippery slope) you will see an Asterina flare up as an early beacon. I'm not saying you have to agree they are beautiful, but don't shoot the messenger. They are just doing their jobs, and helpful jobs at that.
Yikes...horrifying to see an obligate echinoderm tube-feet eating organism recommended so freely After the Asterina are eradicated, what exactly will you be feeding the harlequin shrimp?
Calm, rational thinking, my friends. Look at the form and function of the Asterina's mouthparts...also look at its behaviors. It proliferates rapidly in most every tank, and yet droves of fishes and corals are not missing. in fact, you cant actually name whats missing can ya as they proliferate. But they must be growing from something. And they come out mostly at night. In fact, if you turn the lights on suddenly many hours after dark, you will see them all over the glass and rocks of course. Any hard substrates. Sometimes you can spot them snoozing by day below the sand on the glass...and then rise straight up that glass and out of the sand at night.
They principally eat diatoms, my friends. Brown algae. We all have it. On our glass, rocks, etc.
They are opportunistic though. I have indeed seen them on corals...sick and dying corals.
They have an undeserved bad rap. Its ironic to eradicate a "pest" population of them when their very presence in pest numbers indicates that you have a water quality problem or the beginning of one (ironically even more so indicated by the corals that start to die and get eaten by the helpful Asterina!).
They dont grow from thin air (or pure water, as it were) any more than Aiptasia do. If you have excess nutrients (and subsequently low Redox, flat pH and the other baggage that comes with that slippery slope) you will see an Asterina flare up as an early beacon. I'm not saying you have to agree they are beautiful, but don't shoot the messenger. They are just doing their jobs, and helpful jobs at that.