Little white star fish

[milkman754]

Help!! What are those little white star fish that are all over my tank. Some are 3 legged some are six. But mostly all weird and multiplying. Are they good or bad and how do i get rid of them.

 

[October Sky]

Asterina starfish. Now, some people say kill/remove them, other's say watch them.

I have a few, maybe 5, but you seem to have a serious outbreak. So you may want to start removing them as you see them.

 

[JumboShrimp]

How in the world did you get so many?? Lol. I’d say they are in the ‘good’ column— unless you happen to have a particular type of coral that they just pester/eat.

 

[4FordFamily]

I have more they seem to be more prolific when my water is dirtier but they’ve not caused any issues other than being an occasional eyesore when I get lazy on water changes for awhile. I’ve removed some by hand bits a time when I’ve felt so compelled and it actually helped marginally.

 

[milkman754]

Does any one type of fish eat them?

 

[milkman754]

I’ve hand picked some out but they just keep multiplying. I literally have hundreds.

 

[hoppy]

Harlequin shrimp would make short work of them [emoji6]

 

[James M]

Wrasses would eat them . Harlequin shrimp wouldn’t work long term unless you plan on buying stars to feed them

 

[milkman754]

and this happens too

 

[milkman754]

I have a 7 inch lunare wrasse that don’t go near them.

 

[milkman754]

By the way if anyone wants a beautiful lunare wrasse , if you can catch him you can have him. If you so inclined to bring me something in return even better but whatever works.

 

[milkman754]

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Asterina starfish. Now, some people say kill/remove them, other's say watch them.

I have a few, maybe 5, but you seem to have a serious outbreak. So you may want to start removing them as you see them.

whats wrong with them?

 

[October Sky]

whats wrong with them?

Some think they eat corals, but that's likely the darker type. But they also kind of take away from the tank, at least when you have this many.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I did an R2R search for you, and at least four people were positive that a Harlequin Shrimp would wipe them out; but then the comments generally went on to say ‘then be prepared to trade it.’ Maybe it eventually becomes a lack-of-food problem after the Shrimp has eaten them all, as @James M seems to indicate (above).

 

[October Sky]

I did an R2R search for you, and at least four people were positive that a Harlequin Shrimp would wipe them out; but then the comments generally went on to say ‘then be prepared to trade it.’ Maybe it eventually becomes a lack-of-food problem after the Shrimp has eaten them all, as @James M seems to indicate (above).

It becomes a lack of food problem pretty quickly if they are to just feed on these stars.

I think they eat about 1 leg of a chocolate chip a week. At least. So that's probably about 20 of these things.

 

[milkman754]

Wow, good info. If i have 5 of them i wouldn’t mind . In fact they are kind of part of your clean up crew. But i have them all over and it looks terrible.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I see a few in my tank. I just leave them be.

 

[milkman754]

I only had a few, they multiply fast

 

[Scrubber_steve]

My haven't multiplied, but their easily removed by hand in any case