I think I have some hitch hikers

[ashley]

Can anyone help me.

 

[veselym]

looks like an asterina starfish...relatively harmless but they will consume coraline algae and rapidly grow in numbers

 

[redfishbluefish]

Looks like an Asterina starfish. Some are known to eat corals....others don't....so flip a coin.

 

[ashley]

What kind of corals?

 

[hybridazn]

Asterina starfish. Its been noted the darker colored ones are the ones that are known to eat coral.

 

[hybridazn]

What kind of corals?

Zoas

 

[ashley]

Ok...should I get rid of them? And how?

 

[143MPCo]

Ok...should I get rid of them? And how?

Remove by hand, they will climb on the glass when the lights are out so that's a good opportunity to grab as many as you can.

 

[143MPCo]

harlequin shrimp will also go after them, but once that they are all gone you will need to feed the shrimp as that would have been their primary food source.

 

[ashley]

Ok. So iyo the best thing to do is get rid of them? If I were to get a harlequin shrimp. How do I feed it once the asterina starfish are gone?

 

[143MPCo]

How do I feed it once the asterina starfish are gone?

for the most part Harlequin shrimp's only source of nutrition comes from starfish but, have been reported to go after other tube feet animals like some sea urchins. They're skilled at flipping over the starfish and eating the tube feet and soft tissues.

 

[ashley]

Well I have in my tank a sand sea star. The harlequin will eat it right? I don't want that to happen.

 

[chefjpaul]

Don't need to add critters to eradicate another critter.

This has never made sense to me, its like throwing snails at alage, when PO4 is through the roof.

Just manually remove them, takes a bit of time and patience.

 

[hybridazn]

If there isnt a lot of them I would just manually remove them.

 

[143MPCo]

If there isnt a lot of them I would just manually remove them.

Agreed, like noted in my first post.

Remove by hand, they will climb on the glass when the lights are out so that's a good opportunity to grab as many as you can.

 

[ashley]

Ok great thank you everyone. This really helped