Asterina?
- Thread starter magicwhistle
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KingTideCorals
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Bingo!
Harlequin are normally the ultimate predator
Harlequin are normally the ultimate predator
magicwhistle
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Thanks!
Tired
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Asterinas usually only explode in numbers in tanks that are severely out of balance, or being overfed.
Some varieties eat corals on a regular basis, most don't. The ones that don't will chew corals if starving, but so will many other things. Yours appears to be one of the safe ones.
Don't get a harlequin shrimp just to deal with asterinas. They ONLY eat starfish, and as such will starve once they eat all the asterinas. Manual removal works fine if you just want to deal with a few.
Some varieties eat corals on a regular basis, most don't. The ones that don't will chew corals if starving, but so will many other things. Yours appears to be one of the safe ones.
Don't get a harlequin shrimp just to deal with asterinas. They ONLY eat starfish, and as such will starve once they eat all the asterinas. Manual removal works fine if you just want to deal with a few.
magicwhistle
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Yeah. I wasn’t going to get an harlequin shrimp right now.
What had happened was I got some chaeto from my LFS. It had a bunch of hitchhiker brittle stars and bristleworms. I kept the brittle stars and put them in my DT. The bristleworms freaked me out when I saw them for the first time... especially the first time something touched one and it bristled up. All of my nope. So I saved all the brittle stars and found this guy while digging through the chaeto so saved him for now in the sump. Freshwater dipped the chaeto for a bit and manually removed everything I could. Those bristleworms are legit nightmare fuel.
Not sure if I want to keep it. I wouldn’t mind it as CUC but if it is known to eat corals I’ll probably toss it given how quickly they apparently multiply.
Tired
2500 Club Member
Oh, nice! Brittle stars are a good find.
Bristleworms are also great detritivores, they're just creepy. Make a good reminder not to handle your live rock with bare hands- that stuff's pointy and full of bacteria. They're also nearly inevitable in reef tanks. People who blame them for coral deaths usually had dying or dead coral that the bristleworms were scavenging, they don't do any harm. The worst they'll do is multiply a lot if you massively overfeed.
Asterinas aren't any trouble for most people who have them. Tanks generally just end up with a scattering of the little guys. You'll probably have some turn up sooner or later, they're very common. May as well leave it in the sump, it might eat some detritus down there for you.
Bristleworms are also great detritivores, they're just creepy. Make a good reminder not to handle your live rock with bare hands- that stuff's pointy and full of bacteria. They're also nearly inevitable in reef tanks. People who blame them for coral deaths usually had dying or dead coral that the bristleworms were scavenging, they don't do any harm. The worst they'll do is multiply a lot if you massively overfeed.
Asterinas aren't any trouble for most people who have them. Tanks generally just end up with a scattering of the little guys. You'll probably have some turn up sooner or later, they're very common. May as well leave it in the sump, it might eat some detritus down there for you.
