Asterina Starfish...SO Annoying

jphilip813 · Dec 9, 2020

knightnsd said:
if you can lift your corals and rocks up and out, look underneath them during the day and you'll find them lying in wait for the night and start brushing the little bast*** off the bottoms of your corals and rocks then return the rock or coral to your tank. Then wait till night and sweep the glass with a net.

Litterally jusy plucked 5 out (that I can reach...lol) I guess my weekend is gonna be defined for me...I did buy the shrimp..he stays hidden, I see him once ina while

Pkunk35 · Dec 9, 2020

Excellent! Pics? Wondering it’s size as the adults really chow down. So dope looking too.

Say good bye to asterina and then knowing the joys of last minute starfish buying for hungry shrimp...

eric.tech · Dec 10, 2020

I’ve had these little buggers in my tank for quite some time. The only thing I’ve noticed is that they seem to prey on zoas that are very small or are stressed. They’ve never gone after any of my healthy ones. They do seem to help as part of the cuc, but as many have said, when their numbers get too high, they look for other food sources. I keep a harlequin shrimp in my sump and feed him these regularly. I’d love to have him in my display, by my Caribbean hawk fish and Toby puffer would make a quick snack of him.

jphilip813 · Dec 10, 2020

eric.tech said:
I’ve had these little buggers in my tank for quite some time. The only thing I’ve noticed is that they seem to prey on zoas that are very small or are stressed. They’ve never gone after any of my healthy ones. They do seem to help as part of the cuc, but as many have said, when their numbers get too high, they look for other food sources. I keep a harlequin shrimp in my sump and feed him these regularly. I’d love to have him in my display, by my Caribbean hawk fish and Toby puffer would make a quick snack of him.

Do you pluck the star fish off and feed to your shrimp or does he go on a nightly hunt and find them?

jphilip813 · Dec 10, 2020

Pkunk35 said:
Excellent! Pics? Wondering it’s size as the adults really chow down. So dope looking too.

Say good bye to asterina and then knowing the joys of last minute starfish buying for hungry shrimp...

I will try and get one or two sometime tonight...he is always hiding between rocks though...and I only see him at night

Pkunk35 · Dec 10, 2020

Gather some asterina in like a Petri dish or something and place it somewhere, see if it will come eat them, they react to strong starfish smell perhaps if the asterina are gathered or stressed they will give off more “smell”

jphilip813 · Dec 10, 2020

Pkunk35 said:
Gather some asterina in like a Petri dish or something and place it somewhere, see if it will come eat them, they react to strong starfish smell perhaps if the asterina are gathered or stressed they will give off more “smell”

lol only thing is those lil buggers dont stay still in those dishes...but I plucked a few off the other night and dropped them off in the area the shrimp was sitting at...he is moving around in various locations, but stay hidden...

Brad Montgomery · Dec 10, 2020

jphilip813 said:
Not too sure, but Some of ma zoas are not opening all the way like they did a few weeks/months ago

My guess is vermitid snails I'd check for those

knightnsd · Dec 10, 2020

I was looking at more information on asterinas and thought this article was pretty good and might explain why some attack corals or coralline algae and not just injured corals. There are several varieties and some are more aggressive than others and less selective on what they eat. Asterina Starfish. Friend or Foe? - Shrimp and Snail Breeder (aquariumbreeder.com)

jphilip813 · Dec 10, 2020

knightnsd said:
I was looking at more information on asterinas and thought this article was pretty good and might explain why some attack corals or coralline algae and not just injured corals. There are several varieties and some are more aggressive than others and less selective on what they eat. Asterina Starfish. Friend or Foe? - Shrimp and Snail Breeder (aquariumbreeder.com)

Well it looks like the ones that I have don't give (2 flying S#!T$)...they eat everything and to add insult to injury this Sand shifting goby decide to use one of my larger zoa colonies on the sandbed as his new home and move sand ontop of the zoa...(Yes covering the entire zoa colony with sand)...

jphilip813 · Dec 13, 2020

Photos of the new Landlord, hoping he will evict the nonpaying tenant....

knightnsd · Dec 14, 2020

jphilip813 said:
Photos of the new Landlord, hoping he will evict the nonpaying tenant....

Hopefully they do not claim covid tenant rights and be exempt from payment

jphilip813 · Dec 14, 2020

knightnsd said:
Hopefully they do not claim covid tenant rights and be exempt from payment

I just Fell the *** out reading that...lol because I am a landlord and have experienced that in real life down in Florida...lol...This is my only sanity now after going through that...

SHNICI · Dec 14, 2020

Good luck @jphilip813 I'm tennant and don't know about that rule, so probably and the asterinas don't

Be quet about when you are near them ;Smuggrin

knightnsd · Dec 14, 2020

jphilip813 said:
I just Fell the *** out reading that...lol because I am a landlord and have experienced that in real life down in Florida...lol...This is my only sanity now after going through that...

we sold one rental before the fit hit the shan says and we are moving out of California and selling our home as I do not want to be a landlord here again and off to Prescott Arizona, new house and new reef tank build starts this weekend. If we rent out anything again we are doing VRBO, no tenant rights as I have bills to pay too.

jphilip813 · Dec 15, 2020

knightnsd said:
we sold one rental before the fit hit the shan says and we are moving out of California and selling our home as I do not want to be a landlord here again and off to Prescott Arizona, new house and new reef tank build starts this weekend. If we rent out anything again we are doing VRBO, no tenant rights as I have bills to pay too.

Funny you mention that...I think I will have to break my tank down after Six years of being stationed up in the Northeast...I will more than likely move next summer to West Texas for training for 9 months and then on to whatever duty station Uncle Sam sends me too next... ((Dreading next summer))) I have to break down this 120+ gal Reef

knightnsd · Dec 15, 2020

jphilip813 said:
Funny you mention that...I think I will have to break my tank down after Six years of being stationed up in the Northeast...I will more than likely move next summer to West Texas for training for 9 months and then on to whatever duty station Uncle Sam sends me too next... ((Dreading next summer))) I have to break down this 120+ gal Reef been there done that with Uncle Sam and got tired of it and left , did some very fun work but the hours and out of town work wore me and my fiance down. I took a desk job and started a small company and love my warm bed each night these days but miss the adrenalin

Zoa_Fanatic · Dec 15, 2020

I hate these things. They are an entire colony of healthy nuclear dragonseyes I used to have. Luckily my engineer goby decided he has a taste for them. They’ve been gone for over a year now on his watch.

Brittany Marie · Dec 15, 2020

I just pick them out if I can reach them. I have a little container with dried up ones that I keep in my curio cabinet

jphilip813 · Dec 17, 2020

claudius_galen said:
I hate these things. They are an entire colony of healthy nuclear dragonseyes I used to have. Luckily my engineer goby decided he has a taste for them. They’ve been gone for over a year now on his watch.

An engineer goby? Might look into that...Most of my Zoas are virtually closed up or gone from these critters