Asterina Starfish

[Coralfish1701]

So I recently started a reef tank. I got live rock, and with it came a few asterina stars, there aren't TOO many of them, and I'm not sure what the best way to remove them. I heard harlequin shrimp work, but they will starve after the starfish are all gone, does anyone have suggestions? Also, I noticed quite a lot of ball anemones, will they bother corals, or should I leave them in the tank?

 

[nemo1017]

Both the starfish and ball anemone shouldn't bother anything. They just appear and go at their own will. Increased nutrients, and you get more. Decreased nutrients, and you get less. I have both of them and they've never bothered anything...had this tank for 3.5 years now.

 

[Tahoe61]

I would remove as many Asterina manually and possible and keep doing so.

 

[Scott Fellman]

I agree with nemo and Tahoe61... Asteirna are one of those annoying things that you need to deal with to sort of find a "comfort zone" where there are not so darned many of them that they become aesthetically distracting. The only time I've found them to be truly "harmful" is when I foolishly pulled an algae magnet over some without looking, and my acrylic received some nasty scratches, courtesy of the very unhappy Asterina!