Asterina problem

[Miszka]

Hi
Asterins sit on the heads of zoa and probably eat them. Is it time for a harlequin shrimp?

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

If you have a lot and no other starfish you care about yes

 

[andrewey]

I wouldn't add a harlequin shrimp in this case. They will die after they run out of food. Unless you see them eating your zoas, they probably aren't. The vast vast majority do not consume coral are likely consuming the sponges and other organisms between the polyps.

If, however, you observe any eating your zoas, I would intervene. If you would like to remove them, tweezers are a great approach.

If you would like more information, the name was changed from asterina, so you might find more up to date information searching for Aquilonastra.

 

[Miszka]

I wouldn't add a harlequin shrimp in this case. They will die after they run out of food. Unless you see them eating your zoas, they probably aren't. The vast vast majority do not consume coral are likely consuming the sponges and other organisms between the polyps.

If, however, you observe any eating your zoas, I would intervene. If you would like to remove them, tweezers are a great approach.

If you would like more information, the name was changed from asterina, so you might find more up to date information searching for Aquilonastra.

Thank you.

I like my asterins but I also like my zoa. Until then, I was dealing with tweezers.

 

[IKD]

Check out bumblebee shrimp. Similar to harlequin but also eat other foods.

 

[andrewkw]

I wouldn't add a harlequin shrimp in this case. They will die after they run out of food. Unless you see them eating your zoas, they probably aren't. The vast vast majority do not consume coral are likely consuming the sponges and other organisms between the polyps.

If, however, you observe any eating your zoas, I would intervene. If you would like to remove them, tweezers are a great approach.

If you would like more information, the name was changed from asterina, so you might find more up to date information searching for Aquilonastra.

Interesting about the name change. I would say though you won't necessarily notice them eating zoanthids unless you start adding tiny frags. I had a huge population for years and it was only when I had a couple of polyps of zoas that I noticed them disappearing. The bigger colonies would outgrow what was eaten.

In my experience it's individuals that develop a taste for them not the type of aquilonastra. I actually did a bunch of tests with dozens of stars and several types of zoanthids and palys. I found they would go for the smaller polyped ones and ignore larger palys. It's really too bad because the majority of them are great coraline eaters but for whatever reason some get turned onto the polyps.

You can certainly control them via manual removal, but elimination could be hard. Here are just a few of the ones I removed :

 

[vetteguy53081]

Harlequin does well in removal. I did many by hand daily. Eventually you catch up and realize theyre gone. I have harlequin pair in my 660g as tank is dep and wide.. cant do it by hand

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

If they’re sitting on your polyp heads they’re eating them. I lost a whole colony to these dudes