asterina starfish ID

[DangerDave]

I’ve been reading the forum posts on this, is there anyway to know what type of asterina this is, or rather anyway to know if this is a coral eater?

Dave

 

[DangerDave]

Sorry for the crappy pic...

 

[DSC reef]

Unfortunately it's hard to know which are bad. We try to remove any we see. They can reproduce fast and we have some that literally decimated our colony of utter chaos zoas. We had asterinas for years and they never seemed to bother anything until one day we noticed some eating the polyps and it's been a battle ever since.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I don't know if it's true, but what was told to me years ago was that the white/light colored ones are reef safe, and the dark colored ones are potential coral eaters.

 

[TheEngineer]

I don't know if it's true, but what was told to me years ago was that the white/light colored ones are reef safe, and the dark colored ones are potential coral eaters.

Same here. That’s all I’ve heard but nothing definitive. If you’re concerned I’d suggest puling it out. They multiply quickly in our tanks so I think this is one of those situations where you should err on the side of caution.

 

[DangerDave]

That’s for the responses. Here is a couple pics out of the tank...

 

[DangerDave]

I’d prefer not to kill it if I don’t need to....

 

[Tahoe61]

You can watch it, if you see around it zoanthids than it's probably dinning on them at night. Totally agree that precise ID is almost impossible. My experience is that blue to grey in coloration were coralline eaters, pink coral eaters, but that is my personal observation. I have never had the issue with population explosion though.

 

[andrewkw]

You can watch it, if you see around it zoanthids than it's probably dinning on them at night. Totally agree that precise ID is almost impossible. My experience is that blue to grey in coloration were coralline eaters, pink coral eaters, but that is my personal observation. I have never had the issue with population explosion though.

I have 1000s of asternas in my tank and they do sometimes go on zoanthids and palys. That being said they are not eating the polyps. For one I'm not missing any coral, but additionally I added a 2 polyp frag and it had a couple of them on it. A month later it's still a 2 polyp frag. A little disappointing it hasn't grown but it did spend 50hrs in transit in ice cold water and took almost a week to open.

If you don't want to kill the starfish keep it until you notice missing corals. That's how I've determined mine are not eating corals.

 

[skiergd011013]

Id honestly play it safe and remove now, while you can. They can multiply and spread to the point where you have to mag float them off the glass. I had them too, and everytime i see one, it comes out. Now i only see one once a week or so.

 

[DangerDave]

Thanks for all the input, the additional perspectives are really helpful to me. I took the little fella out. After all I’ve read, im sure he’s just the one I’ve seen and I’m assuming I’ll be seeing more.

My tentative plan moving forward will be to watch my zoas closely. If it looks like I’m losing any (I just added a bunch of frags to start a zoa garden look). I’ll get a harlequin shrimp to control the population. If it works well enough to need to start feeding it, I’ll offer it out on loan to the reef club I just joined. If no one needs it, I’ll keep him fed. A harlequin looks like it would be a great visual addition to the reef. Well on the occasions it would show itself anyway.

For anyone in the know, for a 160 gallon display would one or two harlequin’s be appropriate?

Dave

 

[redfishbluefish]

Harlequins are voracious eaters. Unless you are overrun by hundreds to thousands, that eating-machine shrimp will be looking for more in no time. The only thing they eat are starfish, and now if you wish to keep this guy alive, you'll be buying large chocolate chip stars at you LFS every couple weeks.

 

[DSC reef]

We added a harlequin due to the outbreak of asterinas. If you find asterinas on your polyps then pull them off. If there eating it, IME, you'll see the color pigment of the zoas in the mouth of the asterina. With utter chaos, that neon orange is hard to miss.

 

[DangerDave]

Interesting point. I didn’t notice any color on/near his mouth. He’s still in a container of tank water. If I can’t find any coral damage he’ll probably go back in. I think the more biodiversity the better for a healthy system.

 

[Garbonzo]

I let them go in a few tanks in the past, and they can become an immense population in very little time. In my tanks, they devoured coralline algae at a prodigious rate and were more a nuisance because of white spots all over the coralline. Now I remove one whenever one hitchhikes immediately.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

I have an outbreak of asterina and plan to get a harlequin to eat them all up. Done this before, then gave the harlequin back to the lfs when done.

Problem now is that since the last outbreak, i had purchased a sand sifting starfish. My first one, it is quite effective in keeping my sand bed clean, and has been an awesome addition to my cuc.

I know the harlequin will eat him up along with the asterina, so looking for options. Anyone go down this path?

Was thinking to keep the sand sifting starfish in the sump for a while, but didn’t want him to starve.

Thoughts?

 

[DangerDave]

I ended up having more show up. Not an outbreak by any means. I found a couple zoas missing, and decided to get a harlequin. I haven’t seen any more asterina since. I’ve started feeding him chocolate chip star fish legs, one leg a week. He’s really cool to look at when you see him.

Dave

 

[DangerDave]

I have an outbreak of asterina and plan to get a harlequin to eat them all up. Done this before, then gave the harlequin back to the lfs when done.

Problem now is that since the last outbreak, i had purchased a sand sifting starfish. My first one, it is quite effective in keeping my sand bed clean, and has been an awesome addition to my cuc.

I know the harlequin will eat him up along with the asterina, so looking for options. Anyone go down this path?

Was thinking to keep the sand sifting starfish in the sump for a while, but didn’t want him to starve.

Thoughts?

The starfish would be a meal right away. You may want to put him in the sump so he eats the asterina first. The chocolate chip that I’m feeding mine goes into the skimmer chamber and puts his feet right at the surface of the water and seems to be feeding on the film on the surface. I don’t know how much that can sustain.

Alternatively you can get a sea cucumber to sift the sand, or maybe a brittle star.

Good luck!

Dave