The star in your tank - do you have this one?

[vetteguy53081]

Asterina starfish have been a subject of controversy. Some love their presence while others are haunted by their presence. On My behalf, they have caused lots of problems especially a pair I caught (below) that attained the size of a nickel and took down a colony of BamBam zoa. I recently acquired colonies of acro and once again- Asterina
As before, I have manually removed them as I seen them and do know they are thinning out. Ironically most were found amongst my zoa once again.

What is your experience with Asterina Starfish? Do you have any and do you keep them or battle them for eradication?
What is your method of removal?

They are known to eat algae but also known to go after coral. Harlequin shrimp do eat them but not always a guarantee.

 

[Reefer Matt]

It depends on what tank they are in for me. Any tanks with zoas I actively remove them, as some of them will eat zoas. In my sps tank, I am less concerned with them, and only remove them if they reach huge numbers. It's difficult for the common hobbyist (myself included) to decern which ones are harmless, imo.

I have used harlequin shrimp with success, and either move them to another tank, or give them away to hobbyists in my area when they widdle the stars down.

 

[kevgib67]

I too notice them in my zoa garden. Whenever my hands are in the tank I grab what I can. I really despise them but my daughter thinks they are cool and points the cute little starfish out to her friends.

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

I keep them. I hope and pray they will eat the palys that a friend gave me but I don’t really like.

 

[Auquanut]

When I initially set up the 125, I got a plague of asterinas. To be honest, I never saw any real damage. Occasionally, one would leave a light spot on my stylophora that would quickly recover, but didn't seem to bother the zoas. There were just SO MANY that it became an eyesore.

Tried manual removal, but couldn't keep up with them. I added a harlequin shrimp that did wonders. Brought the numbers to an almost unnoticeable level. I also had a melanaurus wrasse, and they seemed to coexist peacefully until the shrimp disappeared maybe 6 to 8 months after being added.

Since then, I have them, but they're more of an attraction than a pest. If I see more than I like, I just remove some manually. Not sure if the tank maturing over time made the difference or not.

 

[blaxsun]

Never had the misfortune of them in my tank... yet.

 

[Sump Crab]

I have one of the gray varieties and love them. No issues what so ever.

 

[Turkey head]

I had them a few years ago. There were tons of them. I got an arrow crab and then they were gone. I actually put some from my old tank into my new one. The variety I had are not detrimental to anything I keep. Basically just CUC. Something in my new tank keeps them under control because I rarely see one, even at night.

 

[Stomatopods17]

For some reason I have a few in my 125 but they never had a breakout, they always stayed in single digit numbers and can be occasionally found. Been like that for many years now so they're kinda just welcome CuC at this point.

That being said I have had breakouts, infact I attempted to breed them for harlequin shrimp sustenance in a separate tank with success. The issue is harlequins destroy their populations too well, its impossible to breed enough of them for harlequin sustenance cause they run out so fast and need so many of them to equal what a normal-sized starfish provides. There is no doubt they'll cure your asterina problem cause I can't even create a big enough asterina problem to try and save a buck on sea stars, 200 asterinas basically gets cut down to 10 within a week.

Never had asterinas that caused any damage though, there's very few that will and its very difficult to identify without corals vanishing to figure out which are the badies. They do multiple insanely quick though, they're the saltwater equavilant to the snails freshwater enthusiast have to deal with hitchhiking on their plants, 1 bunch of eggs on a plant from the store and it's an uncontrolable snail bloom until you get assassin snails to kill them all.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Those are really beautiful Asterinas in your pic...I thought you were asking about starfish in general and was going to talk about my 3 Fromia indica stars haha

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I've only ever had the white one's, and I've become convinced that they eat coraline, so now I remove them whenever I see them.

 

[Rmckoy]

Asterina starfish have been a subject of controversy. Some love their presence while others are haunted by their presence. On My behalf, they have caused lots of problems especially a pair I caught (below) that attained the size of a nickel and took down a colony of BamBam zoa. I recently acquired colonies of acro and once again- Asterina
As before, I have manually removed them as I seen them and do know they are thinning out. Ironically most were found amongst my zoa once again.

What is your experience with Asterina Starfish? Do you have any and do you keep them or battle them for eradication?
What is your method of removal?

They are known to eat algae but also known to go after coral. Harlequin shrimp do eat them but not always a guarantee.

Seeing a penny only points out age now …
We haven’t had Pennie’s in circulation for a few years and those that do have them are collecting for some odd reason and prey that one 1940’s penny could be worth upwards of $10,000 cad

Back to stats .. I have them. Everywhere but they don’t seam to bother any corals . And have always just left them

 

[vetteguy53081]

Seeing a penny only points out age now …
We haven’t had Pennie’s in circulation for a few years and those that do have them are collecting for some odd reason and prey that one 1940’s penny could be worth upwards of $10,000 cad

Back to stats .. I have them. Everywhere but they don’t seam to bother any corals . And have always just left them

Thats a nickel which shows how large the asterinas were

The 1943 copper penny is the one worth $$$$

 

[Dburr1014]

Sometimes in the morning I just pick them off on the glass. They come and go in their numbers, lately they've been real low.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sometimes in the morning I just pick them off on the glass. They come and go in their numbers, lately they've been real low.

Same here. Ive had none for the longest time and this morning- I pulled Ten??? All I added was a chalice but suspect it was under the chalice .

 

[exnisstech]

Hundreds in my 180. They tend populate the glass at night then retreat when lights come on. Occasionally I'll scrape them off the glass with a net and dispose of them. I've never seen them bother anything. On my two smaller tanks I try to pull them whenever I see one. I just don't want to look at them in those two tanks

 

[LPS Bum]

Yeah, I have them. Small white ones that never get very big. Though not nearly as many as I had several years ago.

When I can easily grab them, I feed them to my 2 large Elegance Corals. They see to enjoy Asterinas as an afternoon snack.

 

[Klyle]

Like every other pest, I’ve only had problems with them when the population exploded due to over feeding. And I’m fairly certain they ate my bam bams too. Got a harlequin and he wiped them out in weeks. Got rid of the harlequin, haven’t had any issues since and they are still in my tank. Don’t seem to be interested in the zoas anymore

 

[zoomonster]

I got lucky and got the "good" ones. Probably 4-5 years ago, I was having some algae issues and the population exploded, literally 1000's. Considered harlequins but never did probably because they would have eaten octopussy my 10yo serpent star. Eventually they ran out of food and dwindled too next to nothing (and cleaned up tank). I have very few today and they mostly graze rocks and glass. Never seen them bother zoas or anything else. My melanurus always likes a snack of mini brittle stars but never seen him or anyone else eat the asterina.

 

[The_Skrimp]

I used to not mind them so much but my mind is starting to change on them now that i have too many in the tank. I have the regular white ones along with some gray ones that have a spot in the top center. I try to pull them out with tweezers every now and then and can usually get 20 or more every time I do. They definitely eat coralline. They’ll leave a bright pink dead spot on the coralline after hanging out on top of it for a while. I also find them bear hugging zoa polyps from time to time and although I can’t prove that they’re eating them, my zoas always look happier after culling their numbers.