Asterina predators that aren't shrimp
- Thread starter mushrommy
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Stomatopods17
Well-Known Member
harlequin shrimp and cbb will be fine together. They can hold their ground pretty well, i was pinched by my female harlequin yesterday.
Its cleaners, fish, and arrow crabs you need to care cbb fighting, it'll most likely just ignore the harlequin's existance.
Its cleaners, fish, and arrow crabs you need to care cbb fighting, it'll most likely just ignore the harlequin's existance.
Stomatopods17
Well-Known Member
coral banded shrimp i'm referring to.
typo
Harlequin shrimp are your only asterina predators that I know off, i've had a pair decimate a 200 population I grew intentionally for them in weeks. There's no evidence of bumblebee shrimp hunting down stars but I did see bumblebees eat a chocolate chip star with a pair of harlequins, i filmed it consuming the star but the quality turned out pretty terrible cause of blue lighting, there was only 1 actually eating it while the other bumblebees were roaming. Harlequins will be able to hold their ground from a coral banded shrimp, I've had them be stubborn enough to push away emerald crabs before.
Last edited:
Boreas_SA
Active Member
There are definitely other predators of asterinas, Nardoa starfish worked for me to keep asterinas under control, and they do seem to eat left over frozen food they find too. Have had 5 of them in a 75 gallon for about a year and they seem to be doing well.
Boreas_SA
Active Member
If you want to go for shrimp, bumblebee is a better bet, as they are not obligate starfish feeders, and will also eat other food. For the Nardoa, you can probably target feed them, but mine have been persisting for a year now without any special care, one even grew back a leg it lost to the wavemaker, so I suspect they are getting enough food.
@mushrommy if you go with the harlequin shrimp be prepared to supplementaly feed it when the asterina are gone or it will starve. I had one but got tired of cutting legs off chocolate chip stars to feed it after it cleaned out all the asterina so I traded it in.
Are the asterina bothering anything? I have quite a few and they bother nothing. They usually get on the front glass at night and I'll scrape them off with a net sometimes. For the most part they stay on the back glass. Mine also seem to self regulate their population on their own. I'll have hundreds in my 180g and then one day it will dawn on me that their numbers have decreased.
