Asterina population control

[GillMeister]

Does anyone have a good method for controlling asterinas in a reef tank?
1. I have a Niger Trigger so a Harlequin might not survive long. I would like to hear if anyone has had experience with these critters in a tank together.
2. I have literally hundreds of pounds of rock in my tank. Manual removal would be impossible.

Any advice here would be appreciated. They are harmless but the sheer volume is an issue for me.

 

[InvaderJim]

The only thing I've had luck with is scraping as many as I can off the glass when the lights are out and cutting down on my feeding a bit.

 

[Subsea]

I have not found Harliquen shrimp to Control Asterina Starfish in a 120G display. I had a Harliquen Shrimp for 6 months and never saw it eat this pest.

In my 75G and smaller tanks, I remove them when ever I see them. Yes, hands in the water and remove one at a time.

 

[SPR1968]

Ive tried manual removal and a Harlequin shrimp, and certainly the shrimp did his job in my S650, but unfortunately he disappeared before I could remove him back to the LFS

When I did manual removal, each morning before lights on, I have a long pair of tweezers and basically picked out as many as I could see every morning for a week or so until few were left and it certainly lowered the numbers.

I have them back again now, big time in the S650 so when I get around to it I will have another go at the manual removal for a while. I don’t really want another shrimp, as in a tank that size they can be difficult to catch.

 

[Hairyteeth]

The shrimp definitely works me…. If you put one in the sump the smell of it in the tank will make all of them climb the glass to the top to escape. And then you could pluck them out

 

[o2manyfish]

The harlequin have worked for me in a 560g and 340g sump- One pair in each tank.

Dave B

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I have not found Harliquen shrimp to Control Asterina Starfish in a 120G display. I had a Harliquen Shrimp for 6 months and never saw it eat this pest.

In my 75G and smaller tanks, I remove them when ever I see them. Yes, hands in the water and remove one at a time.

If you had the shrimp in your system and you were not feeding it any type of starfish it was definitely eating the Astria

 

[AydenLincoln]

Harlequin shrimp! But know that once they eat all the stars which can happen quickly you should supplementally buy and feed them bigger starfish like chocolate chip stars! You can break them apart and freeze them. But personally I could never buy a star just to feed it to a harlequin shrimp!

 

[Lavey29]

Are asterina really that bad for the ecosystem? Won't they self regulate their population by available food source?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Does anyone have a good method for controlling asterinas in a reef tank?
1. I have a Niger Trigger so a Harlequin might not survive long. I would like to hear if anyone has had experience with these critters in a tank together.
2. I have literally hundreds of pounds of rock in my tank. Manual removal would be impossible.

Any advice here would be appreciated. They are harmless but the sheer volume is an issue for me.

I was in same boat and manually removed by hand and net daily as they are present in the morning and evening on glass and rock. At first , looks like youre getting nowhere and soon you realize they are nearly gone.
As they dislocate their legs and reproduce, you can recover and discard those too
This and shrimp are only options as no fish eat stars of this type. You can siphon them too but be prepared to keep replenishing water

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Since Harlequin Shrimp an manual removal are out of the question, you're pretty well out of luck for extermination of the Asterinas (Aquilonastras). That said, if you're just looking to cut down on the number of stars and your tank is large enough, a reef safe starfish like a Linckia star may help (see the link with pics of multiple stars - Linckia multifora/laevigata, and an unconfirmed star species or two - eating Aquilonastra stars below). Personally, I'd stick with the manual removal, but, long story short, it's assumed they prey on the smaller stars to get the biofilm in/on their bodies.

Linckia Starfish....they do eat (I guess) - Reef Central Online Community

Linckia Starfish....they do eat (I guess) Reef Discussion

www.reefcentral.com

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I have not found Harliquen shrimp to Control Asterina Starfish in a 120G display. I had a Harliquen Shrimp for 6 months and never saw it eat this pest.

That was not my experience. I had over 300 hundreds of these in my 120G.
I bought a very very small harlequin shrimp and placed it in my 40G. I then fed it every day with 3 or 4 stars. The stars, in the small tank disappeared every day and they were eventually almost gone in my big tank. Harlequin shrimp became very big. As I did not want to have is starved, I returned it to my LFS.
The stars in my large tank are increasing again, and I will have to repeat the process. However I have now a coral banded shrimp in my smaller tank and I wonder if it would be aggressive towards the harlequin. I am hesitant to put it directly in the big tank because of my 6 line wrasse. It is a model citizen in my tank, but I am not sure of how it would react with a tiny harlequin shrimp. Also when it is time to return it to the LFS it will be hard to catch the harlequin.

 

[Subsea]

If you had the shrimp in your system and you were not feeding it any type of starfish it was definitely eating the Astria

It starved to death and died. I even dropped stars on top of him, only to have him move away.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

It starved to death and died. I even dropped stars on top of him, only to have him move away.

Honestly, I’d wonder if yours was sick in some way, as most stories I’ve heard report running out of stars to feed, even in huge tanks.

 

[Subsea]

That was not my experience. I had over 300 hundreds of these in my 120G.
I bought a very very small harlequin shrimp and placed it in my 40G. I then fed it every day with 3 or 4 stars. The stars, in the small tank disappeared every day and they were eventually almost gone in my big tank. Harlequin shrimp became very big. As I did not want to have is starved, I returned it to my LFS.
The stars in my large tank are increasing again, and I will have to repeat the process. However I have now a coral banded shrimp in my smaller tank and I wonder if it would be aggressive towards the harlequin. I am hesitant to put it directly in the big tank because of my 6 line wrasse. It is a model citizen in my tank, but I am not sure of how it would react with a tiny harlequin shrimp. Also when it is time to return it to the LFS it will be hard to catch the harlequin.

Perhapes they came from different habituates.

 

[Subsea]

Honestly, I’d wonder if yours was sick in some way, as most stories I’ve heard report running out of stars to feed, even in huge tanks.

It was feeding on different starfish at LFS. No comment to your “sick comment”.

 

[nereefpat]

I suspect adult Halichoeres wrasses pick them off. Maybe it's just the baby stars, which would control the population over time.

My systems have had lots of asterinas in the past, but not when I have had an adult yellow or melanurus wrasse.

 

[bnord]

Have a growing population in a 180, and have been removing the easy ones and plopping them in a 15 desk top, that I intend to add a shrimp pair to. Hate hands in the tank and trying to fashion a "scraper/catcher" tool

but I am hearing here that a pair can work in a larger tank? really?

How do Harlequins do with a mess of wrasses? (melanurus, Coris, 6 line, leopard?)

saw the above after I posted... either the wrasses listed here do not work o the stars, or I have a much bigger infestation than I thought

 

[homer1475]

I suspect adult Halichoeres wrasses pick them off. Maybe it's just the baby stars, which would control the population over time.

My systems have had lots of asterinas in the past, but not when I have had an adult yellow or melanurus wrasse.

Fully grown adult male yellow coris wrasse(Halichoeres chrysus), doesn't touch an asternia in my tank, unfortunately.

 

[Murica]

They got so out of control in my last system that the only way I could eradicate them was to hypo the tank. The harlequin shrimp worked fine.. however it would never get every last one and every time I tried to go down that route, they’d come back with vengeance. Like hundreds… it was crazy.