Do these starfish eat coral ?

[Easy Reefing]

Just wondering if these guys are bad for a reef tank . Thank you

 

[Easy Reefing]

Also need to help to ID this

 

[mattzang]

pic 1 is an asterina starfish. some people say they're bad and maybe eat zoas? i got lazy about plucking them out of my tank and the worst thing they seem to do is crawl onto my ATO sensor and cause the alarm to turn on. i have a few zoas that don't seem to be bothered

pic 2 looks like a pineapple sponge

 

[Easy Reefing]

pic 1 is an asterina starfish. some people say they're bad and maybe eat zoas? i got lazy about plucking them out of my tank and the worst thing they seem to do is crawl onto my ATO sensor and cause the alarm to turn on. i have a few zoas that don't seem to be bothered

pic 2 looks like a pineapple sponge

Thank u !

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

pic 1 is an asterina starfish. some people say they're bad and maybe eat zoas? i got lazy about plucking them out of my tank and the worst thing they seem to do is crawl onto my ATO sensor and cause the alarm to turn on. i have a few zoas that don't seem to be bothered

pic 2 looks like a pineapple sponge

Agreed. Pic 2 is a pineapple sponge.

On the asterina stars, some eat coral and others won't. I had a bad run with them and had to get a harlequin shrimp to take care of them. They will multiply and IMO that's when they become a pest.

 

[AcroNem]

The starfish was formerly in the Genus Asterina, officially Aquilonastra now. Of the 28 or so species, only a couple will harm corals or invertebrates and we usually don't see those in the hobby. Aside from a fast rate of reproduction they're almost always harmless. I also agree the second pic is sponge, harmless as well.

 

[KJ]

Also need to help to ID this

Ball sponge.

 

[Easy Reefing]

The starfish was formerly in the Genus Asterina, officially Aquilonastra now. Of the 28 or so species, only a couple will harm corals or invertebrates and we usually don't see those in the hobby. Aside from a fast rate of reproduction they're almost always harmless. I also agree the second pic is sponge, harmless as well.

Thank u

 

[Cwentz758]

Any other way to rid my tank of the starfish? I like the shrimp but don’t want to keep him after they’re gone. Yes I could take it back somewhere but that’s a hassle and risky

 

[Cwentz758]

I also currently think these starfish are slowly killing my GSP colony, they’re in it and it’s starting to unstick to the rock and fall apart even though it looks great!

 

[tehmadreefer]

Certain asternias do in fact eat corals, softies, lps and sps. The one that do and don’t are not easily identifiable. So they are a gamble.

 

[MERKEY]

Certain asternias do in fact eat corals, softies, lps and sps. The one that do and don’t are not easily identifiable. So they are a gamble.

+1 to this...

They also crawl all over corals eating algea so you will always be wondering if it's the 1 or 2 that eat them or not

 

[tehmadreefer]

+1 to this...

They also crawl all over corals eating algea so you will always be wondering if it's the 1 or 2 that eat them or not

Haha yep

 

[mattzang]

Any other way to rid my tank of the starfish? I like the shrimp but don’t want to keep him after they’re gone. Yes I could take it back somewhere but that’s a hassle and risky

when i was getting rid of them i just used long tweezers

it was kinda fun in a messed up kind of way? do it at night that's when they're out and about

but my strain doesn't seem to be the bad kind. i remove them whenever they're on my ATO, but nothing beyond that and at most i see 6-8 at night, doesn't seem to be increasing much

 

[cidermaster]

I’ve never had a problem with stars until recently they started mowing down all my colonies of zoas . I always thought they were kinda cool to look at and never caused a problem until they did !

 

[Cwentz758]

when i was getting rid of them i just used long tweezers

it was kinda fun in a messed up kind of way? do it at night that's when they're out and about

but my strain doesn't seem to be the bad kind. i remove them whenever they're on my ATO, but nothing beyond that and at most i see 6-8 at night, doesn't seem to be increasing much

I wake up to about 2 dozen on my glass not to mention them all up in my GSP... I’ve scrapped them into nets a few times but then they’re reproduced and back the next day.

 

[X-37B]

Get them before they are an issue.
I had a few in my 120. 6 months later I had hundreds. I have removed at leat 200 and am down to 5ish a week. If you have coralline and see white spots, its from them, as that is their main food.

 

[Brian_68]

They ended up eating my zoas once numbers got large, had to get a harlequin and now have none.

 

[Cwentz758]

Get them before they are an issue.
I had a few in my 120. 6 months later I had hundreds. I have removed at leat 200 and am down to 5ish a week. If you have coralline and see white spots, its from them, as that is their main food.

They’re going down when I get home.... I just assumed I lost my coralline in the move but now I do believe that’s a lie