Asterina eating coralline?

[jurgenph]

so, this little asterina seastar has been moving around on the same piece of rock for a few days.
the coralline turns bright pink, and the a day or two later it turns white.

i haven't seen them do this before, is this one that needs to be removed?

sorry for the not so great picture, but i need to angle the camera against the glass in order to get a clear shot.

J.

 

[saltyhog]

Hmmmm. Never had any of mine seem to eat coralline algae but it kind of looks like he did.

 

[Brian_68]

Mine eat it like crazy.

 

[jurgenph]

Mine eat it like crazy.

and they leave your corals alone?

i did notice that this particular one is darker than the ones that don't eat the coralline.


J.

 

[Brian_68]

They loved the zoas until I got a harlequin shrimp and he has kept them to a minimum now.

 

[HB AL]

Mine absolutely ate coraline, cleared it pretty much out. They had a big population explosion. Now months later only a few remain and coraline is growing back. They didn’t touch corals.

 

[Jet915]

Mine eat some zoas and coraline. Had to get a Harlequin to control the population.

 

[jurgenph]

so far i haven't seen it bother any of the zoas.
i'll keep an eye on it though


J.