Keep or remove?

[DAniel559]

hitchhiked on a new frag.

 

[jerrod]

It's an asterina star some eat zoanthids some only eat Coraline algae

 

[Brad Waddell Wrath's Reef]

Asterina star, bad remove. The multiple fast, eat coraline algae

 

[Wolf89]

They are good

 

[zoomonster]

Impossible to tell what kind of asterina but I have 100's and they don't bother anything but green algae on glass and rocks. Much more bang for the buck than snails and I usually only see them at night. Then again supposedly there are some that will do damage. They do multiply rapidly though based on food supply. One of these days I may add some Harlequin shrimp to eat them up.

 

[Greg Witherell]

Some say they are good some say bad. I never saw them eat any corals but some say they do. In my experience they just multiply at such a rate that they are soon everywhere. I could not get rid of them by hand as there were hundreds (used a harlequin shrimp to eradicate) so now if I see one I remove it immediately.

 

[DAniel559]

Thanks for the quick responses.
Going to toss it just to stay on the safe side.

 

[Joekovar]

I found a couple of these this weekend on a new frag.

The bit about eating Coraline is interesting. To me, Coraline seems more like a canary in a coal mine, and not something I want sticking around due to it consuming the same elements corals consume.

So far I've watched them skirt around some zoas and an acan. Seemed to be interested, but ultimately avoid them.

My LFS has Harlequin shrimp readily available, and they're something I've wanted to get anyway. I think I'll keep an eye on the asterinas for awhile.