Astarina Starfish

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Hallowhead

Hallowhead

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Howdy,

I am becoming worried that my tank is overun with asterina starfish... I remove about 20 a day and it doesn't seem to effect the overall population, I find them munching on coralline on the back wall as well as munching on zoanthid stalks.

I am trying to mitigate them, but they're just too many? They're like vermetid snails... I am tempted to torch this tank, it's been nothing but headaches.

Are harlequin shrimp easy to find?
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Are you able to pull any rock out of the tank and pluck off even more at a time— maybe double or triple— than you can get at with the rocks in the water?
 
JumboShrimp said:
Are you able to pull any rock out of the tank and pluck off even more at a time— maybe double or triple— than you can get at with the rocks in the water?
Click to expand...
I've done that several times - very tedious and they always come back
 
AS
Hallowhead said:
Howdy,

I am becoming worried that my tank is overun with asterina starfish... I remove about 20 a day and it doesn't seem to effect the overall population, I find them munching on coralline on the back wall as well as munching on zoanthid stalks.

I am trying to mitigate them, but they're just too many? They're like vermetid snails... I am tempted to torch this tank, it's been nothing but headaches.

Are harlequin shrimp easy to find?
Click to expand...
It ain’t super rare for my lfs to get them in. I’m on the west coast of the US btw. U could always request your lfs to order them or just order through live aquaria if u like
 
Is this the LFS said:
It ain’t super rare for my lfs to get them in. I’m on the west coast of the US btw. U could always request your lfs to order them or just order through live aquaria if u like
Click to expand...
I'm definitely gonna keep my eye out - just nervous about rehoming after
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Not a pest numbers can increase or decrease possibly due to increase or decrease of food if they do not eat your precious coral then why do you want to kill them!
 
Hallowhead said:
Howdy,

I am becoming worried that my tank is overun with asterina starfish... I remove about 20 a day and it doesn't seem to effect the overall population, I find them munching on coralline on the back wall as well as munching on zoanthid stalks.

I am trying to mitigate them, but they're just too many? They're like vermetid snails... I am tempted to torch this tank, it's been nothing but headaches.

Are harlequin shrimp easy to find?
Click to expand...
with patience, keep pulling them daily. Eventually you will realize the herd is thinning out. A harlequin shrimp or two will also help thin them out. They can be evasive and destructive.
 
Hallowhead said:
I find them nibbling on zoanthid stalks all the time
Click to expand...
They will take them down. Stop them as best as possible. I caught this Bugger over a year ago eating a colony of bam Bam zoas. Notice its larger than a nickle !!

star2.jpg
star1.jpg
 
Avast
vetteguy53081 said:
with patience, keep pulling them daily. Eventually you will realize the herd is thinning out. A harlequin shrimp or two will also help thin them out. They can be evasive and destructive.
Click to expand...
To be completely honest, this tank isn't going to be around much longer, I love it as it was my first, and I have learned a lot, but end of summer I am moving in with my fiance, and she's approved the larger 180 gallon build ;)

I think I am going to slowly start cutting a piece of each coral and growing out in my frag tank and decommissioning this tank so if the shrimp reeks havoc I won't be as upset.

This tank is riddled with vermetid snails and ever lasting dino's.
 
Deltec
If you torch your tank and start with new/or bleach your current rocks to rid them of pests, I can give you one of my Marine Pure blocks to seed your system. Only pests in my system are bristle worms.
 
Deltec
Can't remember the person who owns a particular store but he submitted an article regarding that he went in at 3:00 am ish and his partners tank was infested with asterina snails. Showed photo's of the tank and was amazed that all the corals were flourishing and not disturbed by the Asterina's. Due to this article I stopped removing them from my tank and I haven't noticed them feasting. Maybe they eat my hair algae!
 
Buckster said:
Can't remember the person who owns a particular store but he submitted an article regarding that he went in at 3:00 am ish and his partners tank was infested with asterina snails. Showed photo's of the tank and was amazed that all the corals were flourishing and not disturbed by the Asterina's. Due to this article I stopped removing them from my tank and I haven't noticed them feasting. Maybe they eat my hair algae!
Click to expand...
I feel like it's just a me thing but when I don't manually remove there are so many and they're definitely eating coralline as when I remove them you can see the removed coralline
 

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