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- Thread starter cil311
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Uncured live rock is wonderful, but it does come with good organisms and pest organisms. I have seen these particular unknowns once about 10 years ago, it took forever to get an ID.
Tyreef2016
Valuable Member
Vermetid snails release a web to catch free floating nutrients in the water. can irritate corals and really take over if never kept in check.
Astrenia starfish also considered a pest by many.
Just a heads up.
Ok thanks Tyreef. I will start trimming down the vermetid numbers. I have had the asterina since I started the tank 5 months ago. They haven't gotten out of hand yet and have left all my coral alone so far.
Tyreef2016
Valuable Member
Cool! hope I didn't come off as a buzzkill, just don't want you to pay for it down the road. I know in the beginning i made some dumb introductions I had to battle.
Supposedly no documentation on the starfish eating coral but just keep an eye out.
Supposedly no documentation on the starfish eating coral but just keep an eye out.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/45-reefkeeping-101-
Debates over the nature of Asterina sp. stars have been waged for as long as these creatures have been observed in marine tanks. The sheer number that a tank can support is startling and can often fool the new aquarist into believing they simply must be eating their prized coral specimens. On the other hand, there are seasoned aquarists who have lived with Asterina sp. for decades with no noticeable problems. These contradictions can be very confusing to the novice aquarist. The reasoning behind these wildly varying opinions is that Asterinas sp. can indeed be both - either a benign addition or a coral killer, and it is currently not possible to definitively test or identify which type is in any one tank. At this point it should be said that there are many different species of Asterina sp. and of them all, only a few have ever been recorded to eat coral such as Acropora, zoanthids and other soft corals. The vast majority are opportunistic scavengers and/or herbivores that eat coralline or other types of algae. It has been estimated that of all the Asterina sp. varieties, only around 5% are coral eating species, which is good news for aquarists since they are so common in our systems. However, there are more than enough documented cases of corals being eaten by Asterina sp. to convince even the hardened skeptic that not all Asterina sp. are alike, and that some are, indeed, carnivorous.
There are documented cases of the rare Asterina eating sps, and more commonly eating zoanthids (I had a few eat a large colony of Radioactive Dragon eye zoanthids of the course of months). The author sums up the debate pretty well, there are hundreds of different types, and a good possibility that some become opportunistic feeder in the absence of their normal food source, and there are a few types that specifically eat sps.
Debates over the nature of Asterina sp. stars have been waged for as long as these creatures have been observed in marine tanks. The sheer number that a tank can support is startling and can often fool the new aquarist into believing they simply must be eating their prized coral specimens. On the other hand, there are seasoned aquarists who have lived with Asterina sp. for decades with no noticeable problems. These contradictions can be very confusing to the novice aquarist. The reasoning behind these wildly varying opinions is that Asterinas sp. can indeed be both - either a benign addition or a coral killer, and it is currently not possible to definitively test or identify which type is in any one tank. At this point it should be said that there are many different species of Asterina sp. and of them all, only a few have ever been recorded to eat coral such as Acropora, zoanthids and other soft corals. The vast majority are opportunistic scavengers and/or herbivores that eat coralline or other types of algae. It has been estimated that of all the Asterina sp. varieties, only around 5% are coral eating species, which is good news for aquarists since they are so common in our systems. However, there are more than enough documented cases of corals being eaten by Asterina sp. to convince even the hardened skeptic that not all Asterina sp. are alike, and that some are, indeed, carnivorous.
There are documented cases of the rare Asterina eating sps, and more commonly eating zoanthids (I had a few eat a large colony of Radioactive Dragon eye zoanthids of the course of months). The author sums up the debate pretty well, there are hundreds of different types, and a good possibility that some become opportunistic feeder in the absence of their normal food source, and there are a few types that specifically eat sps.
Lionfish Lair
Renee
I just noticed a blotch of these strange grey spotted things. Any ideas on what they are?
