xcorallusx
unregistered
Has anyone used harlequin shrimp take care of their asterina population?
Long Term STN and Asterina Starfish
- Thread starter -Logzor
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Apisto
Active Member
I used them to get rid of the asterina in my sps tank. The stars did not seem to be hurting the corals at all, and possibly even helping with general algae clean-up, but they were just annoying to look at because they were all over the glass, rocks, etc. I had a lot of flow in the tank and a pretty big melanarus wrasse that really likes invert hunting, so I was a little apprehensive about putting them in to that situation. My apprehension was unjustified. The pair were great additions to the tank. They seemed to have no problem with the flow (2 wide-open mp40s in a 36" tank) and moved around the tank effortlessly. No problems with the wrasse or any other tank inhabitants, save one (or more appropriately hundreds). It took a couple of months total, but the stars were all but erradicated.
i have never seen an asternia eating algae of a dying piece of sps. a while back i had a problem with aefw and with all of my colonies going stn and lots of dead tissue, i never saw a single asterina on an sps frag.
i believe he really does have the predatory asterina's
bob
i believe he really does have the predatory asterina's
bob
OP
OP
-Logzor
2500 Club Member
Working on pics with my macro lens but I need to find a nice big fat one. They will come out at night, I'll have to do some hunting.
They are fairly dark skinned with black spots.
They are fairly dark skinned with black spots.
Pkunk35
Valuable Member
No idea what the predatory ones look like other than the link you posted but mine had no dark spots at all, had a lighter colored skin and never appeared to bother any coral. First thing I thought of when i saw that pic in the link was that I def did not have those in my tank. Eager to see your pics...
Chameleon
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Ive got some with black spots and have had the problems OP has had. Ill post some pics of mine too. Unfortunately all I have is a smartphone so its hard to get a pic of somethings that small but I will do my best.
Reefltx
Valuable Member
Personally, I think they're attracted to the dead/dying tissue. I started seeing the same thing on some of my dying monti/ acros a few days ago. Which resulted from alk spike I had a few weeks ago.
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Rydogg420
Active Member
pics please. It is way too hard to try and pin point the issues without see some pic of the tank and starfish.. Also if your corals are losing alot of tissue and you do not see swarms of starfish on the coral at the same time, then id have to think there are othedr issues going on..
OP
OP
-Logzor
2500 Club Member
I understand that it can be common for these starfish to eat already dying tissue. That's what I originally thought, too. Say what you want but I'm pretty sure these guys are the cause. I've been extremely successful with SPS in the past. I have colonies that I've kept for 5 years from tiny frags. This is not a case where the new guy pops up on the forum blaming starfish for killing SPS when it's probably a parameter issue.
These starfish have attacked perfectly healthy corals. I think it's more than coincidence that I had a fully encrusted healthy frag of green slimer with a starfish next to it, then when I get home from work there is a chunk of tissue missing. After they attack the coral begins to STN. I'm not losing lots of tissue like a RTN event, it occurs over weeks and weeks, slowly, maybe 1 mm per week in some cases.
Pics of the starfish, they're pretty tiny, the one in the middle is dried out. The spots are more black than they are brown, due to the whitebalance. They might be 1/4" across at the most. They are on the bottom of a styrofoam cup.
These starfish have attacked perfectly healthy corals. I think it's more than coincidence that I had a fully encrusted healthy frag of green slimer with a starfish next to it, then when I get home from work there is a chunk of tissue missing. After they attack the coral begins to STN. I'm not losing lots of tissue like a RTN event, it occurs over weeks and weeks, slowly, maybe 1 mm per week in some cases.
Pics of the starfish, they're pretty tiny, the one in the middle is dried out. The spots are more black than they are brown, due to the whitebalance. They might be 1/4" across at the most. They are on the bottom of a styrofoam cup.
Last edited:
Reefltx
Valuable Member
How stable is your alk. And how often do you test? From my experience, sometimes sps may not show stress from an alk drop or spike until weeks later. It's happened to me twice in the last 2yrs and every time my parameters has been spot on weeks after I corrected the issue. This may not be your case, but just to give you something to ponder. I know how hard and stressful it is to lose sps when you know your parameters are good. I just threw 1 1/2 yr of growth out the window, but I try not to lose sleep over it. Wish you the best of luck figuring out your problem. 
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OP
OP
-Logzor
2500 Club Member
Yep I initially thought Alk. I test weekly and dose via litermeter 3. I run about 9dkh. I even tested water from several high end coral vendors thinking my kit was off. It's stable as can be. Test with Hanna meter.
Logan,
whilst I am not sure whether the starfish you have are predatory against acropora, I know that there are many small and VERY large starfish that eat acropora flesh:
Here is a link to GARF's site where they talk about starfish in similar size to yours which eat acro's for dinner:
GARF predatory starfish 11/25/01
Here is a Reefkeeping article which briefly mentions that fact that there are a few species of Asterina which have been recorded to eat even Acropora: Reefkeeping Magazine - Reefkeeping 101
You may already know of a very large species which eat whole colonies of acros:
http://www.reef.crc.org.au/publications/brochures/COTS_web_Nov2003.pdf
Therefore, it is quite possible.
One thing I can suggest to you is, if you have a frag to sacrifice, stick that frag it a small tank (so you can observe very easily), and stick a few of these in the tank as well. Use water from your tank from a water change. Stick a small pump in there and wait to see what happens. If they are indeed eating the acros, then they should start to eat your frag.
Too often, people blame alk or user error, and it is quite understandable; but with an experienced reefkeeper such as yourself, I find it hard to believe that you are having an alk issue that you cannot even figure out.
The white balance is different, but I have to say, the ones in the GARF link look VERY similar to the ones you have.
whilst I am not sure whether the starfish you have are predatory against acropora, I know that there are many small and VERY large starfish that eat acropora flesh:
Here is a link to GARF's site where they talk about starfish in similar size to yours which eat acro's for dinner:
GARF predatory starfish 11/25/01
Here is a Reefkeeping article which briefly mentions that fact that there are a few species of Asterina which have been recorded to eat even Acropora: Reefkeeping Magazine - Reefkeeping 101
You may already know of a very large species which eat whole colonies of acros:
http://www.reef.crc.org.au/publications/brochures/COTS_web_Nov2003.pdf
Therefore, it is quite possible.
One thing I can suggest to you is, if you have a frag to sacrifice, stick that frag it a small tank (so you can observe very easily), and stick a few of these in the tank as well. Use water from your tank from a water change. Stick a small pump in there and wait to see what happens. If they are indeed eating the acros, then they should start to eat your frag.
Too often, people blame alk or user error, and it is quite understandable; but with an experienced reefkeeper such as yourself, I find it hard to believe that you are having an alk issue that you cannot even figure out.
The white balance is different, but I have to say, the ones in the GARF link look VERY similar to the ones you have.
OP
OP
-Logzor
2500 Club Member
Sahin - Thank you for those great links I will definitely check them out!
I agree, I've done a lot of troubleshooting, finding few reasonable explanations. It seems these starfish may indeed be the cause but I will not m ow for certain until I conduct a test, just as you suggested. It's an excellent idea that in had not thought of!
I've been picking them out each day so I will have to find a few adult starfish to test this out. Thank you for the advice and support.
I agree, I've done a lot of troubleshooting, finding few reasonable explanations. It seems these starfish may indeed be the cause but I will not m ow for certain until I conduct a test, just as you suggested. It's an excellent idea that in had not thought of!
I've been picking them out each day so I will have to find a few adult starfish to test this out. Thank you for the advice and support.
Just saw this thread and wanted to chime in. I just put a Harlequin shrimp in my tank last week due to the number of asternia star fish in my 90. I can grow coraline alge on the glass in my tank like nobodys business but on my rocks forget it. I'm thinking that there is a direct correlation between the lack of coraline alge and the large number of asternia. I used to have nice purple rocks and even dose stronium to feed the coraline yet it doesn't grow on the rocks. I have also noticed on a couple of my acros spots where flesh is gone. I've looked for aefw and haven't seen any I also haven't seen any red bugs. So this leads me to beleive that the star fish have changed their diets to survive in my tank. I would like to post a picture of the ones I have if that is ok with you Logzor.
Reefltx
Valuable Member
