Coral eaters?

[Ds04384]

Do the theee starfish in the middle of this pic look like sps eaters?

 

[Diesel]

Asterina starfish.
Marc @melev has a good write up from them.

http://www.melevsreef.com/node/1775

In my opinion get some tweezers or a in my case 1 Harlequin shrimp for my 200 did the trick in two months.
Make sure you throw some in your sump as the Harlequin will run out of food source when the Asterina's are gone.
In that case once a day you'll take a good size Asterina out the sump with tweezers and feed your Harlequin.

 

[Ds04384]

Asterina starfish.
Marc @melev has a good write up from them.

http://www.melevsreef.com/node/1775

In my opinion get some tweezers or a in my case 1 Harlequin shrimp for my 200 did the trick in two months.
Make sure you throw some in your sump as the Harlequin will run out of food source when the Asterina's are gone.
In that case once a day you'll take a good size Asterina out the sump with tweezers and feed your Harlequin.

I had the large white variety in my tank for forever with no problems but these are smaller and darker. I pulled three other ones like this off a half dead acro as well. Only problem with a harlequin is my tank is tiny, only 24 gallons

 

[Diesel]

I had the large white variety in my tank for forever with no problems but these are smaller and darker. I pulled three other ones like this off a half dead acro as well. Only problem with a harlequin is my tank is tiny, only 24 gallons

They probably were eating algae of the already dead acro's.
If a harlequin is out of range I would get a tweezers.
I've my Harlequin now for 4 years and never seen a asterina since then as I think they are pest and do nothing to promote your reef other than make your Harlequin fat and happy.
As I said keep or breed some asterina in your sump or a 5 gallon small tank where you house some live rock and maybe pods as well.
In that case you have a healthy supply of asterina for your Harlequin and pods for your fish.

 

[Ds04384]

They probably were eating algae of the already dead acro's.
If a harlequin is out of range I would get a tweezers.
I've my Harlequin now for 4 years and never seen a asterina since then as I think they are pest and do nothing to promote your reef other than make your Harlequin fat and happy.
As I said keep or breed some asterina in your sump or a 5 gallon small tank where you house some live rock and maybe pods as well.
In that case you have a healthy supply of asterina for your Harlequin and pods for your fish.

I don't have a sump, it's a cube system. Maybe I'll get a harlequin and return it after it's done the job

 

[Tahoe61]

These Asterina were found around sps or on sps?

 

[Ds04384]

Yes and I recently lost most of my acros but montipora and birds nest did not change at all

 

[Ds04384]

These Asterina were found around sps or on sps?

You can see the half alive sps where I found those three on the top left of the pic. There's a newly dead polyp in the picture but I didn't find a starfish right on that spot

 

[ahiggins]

I have had asterinas on dead zoa polyps.
I cant prove that they ate them, but they were attached to 2-3 dead polyps.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I had them eat a mushroom once. I do suspect some of eating zoas and other coral. I used to subscribe to the idea that they were simply scavengers and only eat the dead flesh, but they certainly eat my mushroom.