Friend or Foe?
- Thread starter ZoWhat
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That one looks like the dreaded colored Asterina Star, bag it and tag it.
The colored ones munch corals. Is it a possibility, yes, it is. Might be your issue. Hopefully it is.
FishGuyTy
Active Member
There really is not a fast way to rid them. I just read an article that was posted on FB from R2R and it was all about these little guys. The most common of these species tend to eat coraline algae and not corals, but the coral eating variety deff get in eventually. I did read, and was pretty sure that the coral eating type had only 5 legs, never more, sometimes less if they lost one. I just recently got a Harlequin shrimp to combat the little buggers in my tank. I have not noticed coral damage, but coraline while spots are all over my rock and back wall and they have been increasing in numbers. The Harlequins eat sea stars and apparently like these little guys. Takes a month or 2, but they can clear out the tank as they are ruthless hunters!
wowkingjames
Well-Known Member
Harlequin shrimp, they will eat them all, they eat star fish. You might want to research it before you buy them.
FishGuyTy
Active Member
I have a 5-bar mystery wrasse and he leaves it alone. They are very good hiders and most people do not see them for months at a time in larger tanks. Yes, they do need sea stars as their food source. Once they are all gone you would need to supplement feeding. I have heard of some just buying a small choc chip sea star every few weeks and others buy a sea star and cut the legs off, freezing them to feed one leg a week.
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ZoWhat
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If you don't feed them starfish, yes, they will die.
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ZoWhat
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What about ReVive from TwoLittleFishes???
KoleTang
Valuable Member
Bayer attacks the nervous system, paralyzing and killing any invertebrate, insect, or mammal. Corals are immune to it and show no ill effects in a 10m dip. This dip is much better for frequent dipping. Even though Revive is "natural" it stresses the coral out and causes it to slime. If you are dipping them weekly for a month or two in Revive, you will not have happy corals on your hands.
Sdoutreefer
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Sooo when you say colored, what colors are you talking about? I have asterina stars, the white with Grey and a couple red ones.
The white and grey Asterinas are ok, the ones with some coloring in them are the bad ones. If you look closely at the pic above, you can clearly see the coloring in the starfish.
