Caught these two on my new Darth Mauls!!!

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Caught red handed (footed?)... asterina stars eating my Darth Mauls:

For as long as I've had my tank, I have believed these stars to be harmless, but now I'm not so sure... granted, it is possible that they were not actually eating the zoas but just "passing through" so to speak and happened to climb on the zoas in their quest for algae/other food, but as you can see there were two on my small colony (hardly seems a coincidence), and I've noticed these polyps haven't been opening fully for about a week now after initially being fine... then again, they could be munching on the polyps BECAUSE they are dying, not actually causing it...

ARGGHGH. What would you do? I already plucked those two off... but what about the other MILLION asterinas in my tank?

 

[glb]

There's a shrimp you can get to eat them. I think it's a harlequin but I'm not sure.


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12g Nanoreef. Zooanthids, Ricordia, Star Polyps and two clownfish. CF Lighting, 75% actinic blue, 25% 10,000k white.

 

[mfinn]

A harlequin shrimp will eat the astrinas, but once they are gone you need to start buying starfish for it or it will starve.

I friend swears that yellow coris wrasses will eat them.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I would opt for manual extraction and a pair of harlequin shrimp (as long as they are compatible for your tank).

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Thanks all... inverts in general won't do well in my tank since I have a clown triggerfish that likes to torture them... so for now it will have to be manual extraction

 

[Mr. E Wrasse]

I thought the same thing until I caught one eating the beautiful base of my ultimate stag. I have hated them ever since!!! Everyone says they are harmless but I beg to differ. I hope.you can get rid of all the little buggers. I was lucky and only had one...

 

[Aqua fire/medic]

I've read that only the stars with color on them will eat coral..... You can see the red in the ones photographed.

 

[mainereefer]

see the color spots? that says bad starfish!!
pull everyone you can out by hand the best time to go starfish hunting is about an hr after lights go out!
I tried a harlequin shrimp till i realized harlequin shrimp dont kill what they are eating! they are not dumb they will just snack on a couple legs then keep it around till the legs grow back this spreads the population

 

[-Logzor]

I concur on all account of these stars eating corals, including zoas and SPS. I have added one of the harlequin shrimp and they do indeed eat the starfish. I highly recommend getting one.

 

[glb]

I catch mine when I find them crawling on the glass.


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12g Nanoreef. Zooanthids, Ricordia, Star Polyps and two clownfish. CF Lighting, 75% actinic blue, 25% 10,000k white.

 

[mainereefer]

I concur on all account of these stars eating corals, including zoas and SPS. I have added one of the harlequin shrimp and they do indeed eat the starfish. I highly recommend getting one.

harlequin shrimp actually only eat the suction cup feet of the starfish. starting at the tip of the legs up to the disk then toss the center disk, it grows new legs then they start in on it again.
if the starfish dies it is because it cant recover from the loss of limbs not because the shrimp actually killed it. they want it to live so they have food for a long time not just that meal.

 

[joshporksandwich]

I lost quite a few zoas due to those stars. Manually remove if not a shrimp will be enough but if you don't feed after it's done it will die.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Thanks guys... been manually removing them the last few days/nights, but 2 of the 3 polyps look damaged beyond the point of recovery. There is one left that they seem to have overlooked, I'll post more pictures and an update later in the week and hopefully the one will survive...

 

[Mcreefer]

I broke down one of my smaller systems because it was "infected" with these. How big is your tank?

 

[khoff]

I've been manually removing probably 2 dozen of these punks each day for the past 2-3 weeks. I found a harlequin shrimp at the LFS this last weekend, but the attendant dropped him in the sump before he could get him bagged! I'm confident that I'll someday murder them all.

It's funny though, for the longest time I never noticed them on a zoa... then one day... they turned against me...

 

[_Alex_]

see the color spots? that says bad starfish!!
pull everyone you can out by hand the best time to go starfish hunting is about an hr after lights go out!
I tried a harlequin shrimp till i realized harlequin shrimp dont kill what they are eating! they are not dumb they will just snack on a couple legs then keep it around till the legs grow back this spreads the population

I have pulled every color of little star off polps and chalices in the past 2 years

 

[bct15]

My personal experience with these is they are harmless, but I have seen dozens of not hundreds accounts of them eating corals...specifically ones with spots or colored ones. If the mini colony hasn't been doing good it is highly possible they were eating it because it was unhealthy, but just as much possible that they were eating it just to eat it or not eating it at all, maybe eating an slave growing on it. In my experience halechoeres wrasses will eat just about any invert you don't want in the tank, I have three a yellow coris, a hoevens, and a very elusive radiant wrasse. I have personally seen the yellow and hoevens eat mini brittle sea stats but never an asterina, but I don't have very many asterina anymore at all except in my fuge so something is getting at them and my guess is the wrasses. I think every tank large enough with a deep enough sand bed (a tupperware container of sand can be used as well) should have at least one halechoeres wrasse, they are beautiful and beneficial. It is fun watching the wrasses and tabgs inspect new coral frags and colonies for algae and hitchhikers.


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[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Ive got a 120 g so there are a lot of them... Always thought that the general consensus was that the really dark green colored ones were the problem, not tan or even a little spotted like those in pic, but i was wrong...

I do have other zoas in my tank that they have never touched (cheap ones, of course they chose the higher end ones to eat)... Also have lots of sps and never seen them near it. Im starting to wonder, since there is literally one polyp of the three that has been untouched whether the other two really were dying to begin with and the stars were just picking at the dead stuff?


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[Dtech07]

I made it a point to pluck 10-15 out a day and after a a couple of weeks i had put a good dent in the their population. I didn't want to be adding additional livestock that once done i needed to find homes for or would become a pest so i do the work and every 4-5 months i do some Starfish Hunting!
The will bother zoas and other corals to the point of closing and ive had zoas melt do to them constantly on them.

 

[Mcreefer]

I set up my last from scratch. Used nothing alive. Seeded with Live pods and fed live phyto. Cycled and bought new coral. Dipped every single frag. And I just found one today.... I hate these guys so much