Good or bad starfish

[craigpaterson]

Will this little thing eat corals if I put any in my tank I have about 6 or them on my live rock

 

[cloak]

It might... That's reason enough to remove them from my system.

 

[Shep]

It might... That's reason enough to remove them from my system.

^+1 When in doubt, throw it out. With reef tanks and pests, its best to err on the side of caution.

 

[Webslinger]

Brown is usually bad if you have zoas.

 

[Fumanchu]

Lol ..
They don't eat coral they do it coraline algae though and they spread fast i had to get a harlequin shrimp to put an end of them

 

[Tahoe61]

Lol ..
They don't eat coral they do it coraline algae though and they spread fast i had to get a harlequin shrimp to put an end of them

There are hundreds of different types of Asterina. Even marine biologist have problems telling different types from one another. Color can be an indicator but not a definitive way to ID. There are indeed Asterina that will eat zoanthids and sps corals. Most commonly found in the hobby though are those that eat both film algaes and some types eat coralline, but not all Asterina eat coralline.

 

[Andrewalex11]

Exactly what Shep said. Don't even waste your time doing anything else except manually removing them. Worry about identification afterwords, and keep an eye out close everyday for them because once something begins to get out of hand it will get out of hand QUICKLY and the whole point is to avoid getting to that level of invasion.

 

[beaslbob]

debatable.

GARF claims they eat sps polyps

 

[Kentech5]

Im really not a fan of those stars. My new harlequin shrimp really likes them though.

 

[Roy 9121]

I have these in my tank. When i see them, and can get to them, i pull them out. But i don't think they do any damage.

 

[Kentech5]

Ive seen them chowing on my zoos in two different tanks. I do think they only target ones that are already weakened but they certainly don't help.

 

[Roy 9121]

Ive seen them chowing on my zoos in two different tanks. I do think they only target ones that are already weakened but they certainly don't help.

I don't have any zoas, so....

 

[Kentech5]

I don't have any zoas, so....

My friend swears they eat clove polyps too. Ive never seen them go after anything else so I think in the right tank they can be useful as cleanup crew.

 

[Roy 9121]

My friend swears they eat clove polyps too. Ive never seen them go after anything else so I think in the right tank they can be useful as cleanup crew.

I usually don't like things that just pop up on my tank, unless I'm 100% sure what they are, and that they're safe. I pluck these out when i see them, but i wouldn't do anything drastic to get them.

 

[craigpaterson]

Thanks everyone I will grab my long tweezers and carefully remove those little monsters lol cheers all