Taking the Asterina risk!?

[Timfish]

They're Aquilonastra spp. starfish not Asterina and is a great scavenger. I see them with anywhere from 4 to 12 legs. The whole discusion around them seems to me excellent examples of misidentification, mistaken behaviour and assumed causality based just on heresay without looking at the research. Asterina spp starfish are preditary but only reproduce sexually and are shortlived so while it's possible some might get into a tank even if it did happen it's not going to be around long. Aquilonastra are one of the uncommon species that reproduce fissiparous or by splitting so are easy to identify by the different sized legs regrown after splitting. They perform an important function not only feeding off algae films but also feeding off microbial films including those on corals (at least ones that don't sting). FYI the mucus coating on corals ages and corals have to periodicely shed it to renew it and maintian healthy microbial processes (Ref 1, Ref 2). If Aquilonastra are feeding on zoas or softies I'll argue they are either benign or even beneficial as they may be reducing the unhealthy older mucus which can be full of unhealthy microbes which the animal is trying to get rid of and are far more likely to be the actual problem.

Here's an example, this Toadstool is doing one of it's periodic sheddings. The Aquilonastra have been in this system for years but only climb onto the Toadstool when it's shedding. In the first picture you can see the old mucus film, Aquilonastra starfish and areas they have cleaned off. The second picture shows the Toadstool a week later after it had finished shedding and the starfish moved on.

 

[Tamberav]

They're Aquilonastra spp. starfish not Asterina and is a great scavenger. I see them with anywhere from 4 to 12 legs. The whole discusion around them seems to me excellent examples of misidentification, mistaken behaviour and assumed causality based just on heresay without looking at the research. Asterina spp starfish are preditary but only reproduce sexually and are shortlived so while it's possible some might get into a tank even if it did happen it's not going to be around long. Aquilonastra are one of the uncommon species that reproduce fissiparous or by splitting so are easy to identify by the different sized legs regrown after splitting. They perform an important function not only feeding off algae films but also feeding off microbial films including those on corals (at least ones that don't sting). FYI the mucus coating on corals ages and corals have to periodicely shed it to renew it and maintian healthy microbial processes (Ref 1, Ref 2). If Aquilonastra are feeding on zoas or softies I'll argue they are either benign or even beneficial as they may be reducing the unhealthy older mucus which can be full of unhealthy microbes which the animal is trying to get rid of and are far more likely to be the actual problem.

Here's an example, this Toadstool is doing one of it's periodic sheddings. The Aquilonastra have been in this system for years but only climb onto the Toadstool when it's shedding. In the first picture you can see the old mucus film, Aquilonastra starfish and areas they have cleaned off. The second picture shows the Toadstool a week later after it had finished shedding and the starfish moved on.

THANK YOU


I love mine... they eat film and decaying flesh when a coral goes south... cleans it right up... helpful critters...

also I have tons of zoas and they are fine

 

[Spare time]

Oh they're already in the display most likely anyways. I've seen no hard evidence they do harm to any coral. And considering they are in most tanks, You would expect to see more hard evidence.

I feel as if its one of those myths of x ate my coral because I saw it on top of the coral or a coral died for whatever reason.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Quick update guys. I put 4 in my DT and was enjoying them when just now around 5 hours later I saw one crawling on one of my Zoa’s. Now I did release him right near the Zoa on accident lol, so it totally could be coincidence or could be eating film as @Timfish suggested above (innocent until proven guilty for now).

With that being said I captured the 3 out of 4 I could find and put them in a jar with holes and some algae to quarantine them overnight while I conduct an experiment.

Experiment: I put that Zoa he was crawling on in my Refugium where I found the starfish in the first place and am going to monitor it throughout the night and leave it in there a few days to see if other starfish surface and eat it or not lol. It was perfectly healthy before so I think this should be good test. My refugium has tons of algae, detritus, Chaeto, sea lettuce, copepods etc so they should have plenty to eat and if they eat the Zoa it means they probably prefer Zoa over algae?

1 is somewhere in DT still so we’ll see what happens in the end anyways if I can’t find him lol.

Thanks everyone for the insights and stories!!!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

They're Aquilonastra spp. starfish not Asterina and is a great scavenger. I see them with anywhere from 4 to 12 legs. The whole discusion around them seems to me excellent examples of misidentification, mistaken behaviour and assumed causality based just on heresay without looking at the research. Asterina spp starfish are preditary but only reproduce sexually and are shortlived so while it's possible some might get into a tank even if it did happen it's not going to be around long. Aquilonastra are one of the uncommon species that reproduce fissiparous or by splitting so are easy to identify by the different sized legs regrown after splitting. They perform an important function not only feeding off algae films but also feeding off microbial films including those on corals (at least ones that don't sting). FYI the mucus coating on corals ages and corals have to periodicely shed it to renew it and maintian healthy microbial processes (Ref 1, Ref 2). If Aquilonastra are feeding on zoas or softies I'll argue they are either benign or even beneficial as they may be reducing the unhealthy older mucus which can be full of unhealthy microbes which the animal is trying to get rid of and are far more likely to be the actual problem.

Here's an example, this Toadstool is doing one of it's periodic sheddings. The Aquilonastra have been in this system for years but only climb onto the Toadstool when it's shedding. In the first picture you can see the old mucus film, Aquilonastra starfish and areas they have cleaned off. The second picture shows the Toadstool a week later after it had finished shedding and the starfish moved on.

Thanks Tim!!

 

[damsels are not mean]

Quick update guys. I put 4 in my DT and was enjoying them when just now around 5 hours later I saw one crawling on one of my Zoa’s. Now I did release him right near the Zoa on accident lol, so it totally could be coincidence or could be eating film as @Timfish suggested above (innocent until proven guilty for now).

With that being said I captured the 3 out of 4 I could find and put them in a jar with holes and some algae to quarantine them overnight while I conduct an experiment.

Experiment: I put that Zoa he was crawling on in my Refugium where I found the starfish in the first place and am going to monitor it throughout the night and leave it in there a few days to see if other starfish surface and eat it or not lol. It was perfectly healthy before so I think this should be good test. My refugium has tons of algae, detritus, Chaeto, sea lettuce, copepods etc so they should have plenty to eat and if they eat the Zoa it means they probably prefer Zoa over algae?

1 is somewhere in DT still so we’ll see what happens in the end anyways if I can’t find him lol.

Thanks everyone for the insights and stories!!!

They crawl all over zoas often because lots of stuff grows on the hard outside of the polyps.. This is likely why so many think they are eating the zoas.

 

[ss30]

Got loads in my tank most of them are 3-4 mm and they have never caused any harm to anything.

 

[pusanpa]

At one point I had way too many of them but now I only see a few of them here and there. Not sure why though.

 

[Timfish]

At one point I had way too many of them but now I only see a few of them here and there. Not sure why though.

I've seen this also and not sure why either. One guess is there's different species and thye may feed of different types of biofilms and run out of food. Could also be a species specific disease or parasite that spreads quickly when a population gets to a certain size allowing easy transmission between specimens.

 

[zheka757]

Thread 'Zoantis problems,' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/zoantis-problems.909380/
Sorry to revive this thread, but I strongly belive these star fish ate my zoantis, btw, ever since I moved my zoantis to my frag tank, same water system, the all grew back

 

[Enderg60]

My old 300 was infested with them. I never noticed any issues with them. But they are on my kill list for the new setup. Just not taking chances.

 

[Timfish]

Thread 'Zoantis problems,' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/zoantis-problems.909380/
Sorry to revive this thread, but I strongly belive these star fish ate my zoantis, btw, ever since I moved my zoantis to my frag tank, same water system, the all grew back

I don't see any issue with reviving this thread. I've see aquilonastra starfish sitting on top of zoas just liek your describe and leaving them alone the starfish stopped sitting on them and the zoas were fine. How long were teh aquilonastra in your tank before you had problmes with your zoas? How did you determine your zoas didn't have some other issue? How did you determine the biofilms on the zoanthiids in you system was healthy and not aged and shifted to being pathogenic?

 

[Timfish]

Deleted excessive postings

 

[Timfish]

Deleted excessive postings

 

[Timfish]

Deleted excessive postings

 

[Derrick0580]

I saw a couple a few months back in my 120, now they are all over the place!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Quick update guys. I put 4 in my DT and was enjoying them when just now around 5 hours later I saw one crawling on one of my Zoa’s. Now I did release him right near the Zoa on accident lol, so it totally could be coincidence or could be eating film as @Timfish suggested above (innocent until proven guilty for now).

With that being said I captured the 3 out of 4 I could find and put them in a jar with holes and some algae to quarantine them overnight while I conduct an experiment.

Experiment: I put that Zoa he was crawling on in my Refugium where I found the starfish in the first place and am going to monitor it throughout the night and leave it in there a few days to see if other starfish surface and eat it or not lol. It was perfectly healthy before so I think this should be good test. My refugium has tons of algae, detritus, Chaeto, sea lettuce, copepods etc so they should have plenty to eat and if they eat the Zoa it means they probably prefer Zoa over algae?

1 is somewhere in DT still so we’ll see what happens in the end anyways if I can’t find him lol.

Thanks everyone for the insights and stories!!!

So far I’ve had no issues with them messing with Zoa’s that I’ve seen, but the population is very low. I only see them once every few days and I look at my tank all day lol. No spike in population yet, so I enjoy the limited time I see them My girlfriend always laughs at them because they’re so small and arms are different sizes usually lol. So that’s a bonus.