Purple coraline eating stars?

[HB AL]

So over the coarse of the last 5 months or so I've noticed 90% of my purple coralline has disappeared off my rocks and red coralline is replacing it at a quick pace. knowing my params for alk, calc, mag, etc.. are spot on by evidence of testing and all the corals thriving it just came to me that it must be the many stars like the one pictured being the culprits. They only come out on the glass at night and retreat back onto the rocks in the day. Not looking for a solution since I really don't care at this point so long as they don't turn into sps eaters. There are hundreds in there since if I don't clean the glass for a few days they are all over it before the lights come on. I counted 45 on the front panel just the other day and largest being about the size of a nickel, most arms I counted on one was 10! So are these coralline eaters?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

They can eat coralline but they're most notorious for sometimes eating zoas (depends on the species). When you find them in great numbers on a glass panel, I would go ahead and remove them from the system since they're easier to spot and grab at that point. You can get too many asterina stars and they will do things like clog powerheads, pumps, and skimmers, and possibly tank water parameters if they have a mass die-off, so population control is generally a good idea. They will consume uneaten food and some nuisance algae so in that sense they are potentially a good cleanup crew member in moderation.

 

[heifinator]

I've found that these guys are pretty useful. Although I've never had an infestation of them so. I dont know =)

 

[HB AL]

They can eat coralline but they're most notorious for sometimes eating zoas (depends on the species). When you find them in great numbers on a glass panel, I would go ahead and remove them from the system since they're easier to spot and grab at that point.

I recently was gone for a week, got home at night, glass hadn't been cleaned during the week and the next morning was when I realized how many where actually in there. Thanks for the idea of just scooping them off the front glass. It takes a while like a week at least for enough algae to grow to the point where it's actually visible so my plan is to not clean that front glass for a couple weeks and scoop them out every morning till I notice that the numbers of them come down significantly on the glass in the morning. Thanks for the idea. Just gotta conquer my dilemma of a dirty front panel.

 

[mark197829]

I recently was gone for a week, got home at night, glass hadn't been cleaned during the week and the next morning was when I realized how many where actually in there. Thanks for the idea of just scooping them off the front glass. It takes a while like a week at least for enough algae to grow to the point where it's actually visible so my plan is to not clean that front glass for a couple weeks and scoop them out every morning till I notice that the numbers of them come down significantly on the glass in the morning. Thanks for the idea. Just gotta conquer my dilemma of a dirty front panel.

Harlequin shrimp eat them for fun, theyll clear your tank in 2 weeks

 

[samnaz]

Harlequin shrimp eat them for fun, theyll clear your tank in 2 weeks

That’s an idea but what will they eat when the stars are gone? Can’t let em starve. Adding asterinas on a regular basis doesn’t seem plausible imo.

 

[najer]

That’s an idea but what will they eat when the stars are gone? Can’t let em starve. Adding asterinas on a regular basis doesn’t seem plausible imo.

I bought my last 2, traded them back in to my lfs once they had done their job!

 

[samnaz]

I bought my last 2, traded them back in to my lfs once they had done their job!

Thanks for not lettin em die

 

[HB AL]

I would go down to my lfs asap and get a couple harlequin shrimp, but they would probably end up being an expensive meal for my Sargassum and Bluejaw triggers and the big red coris wrasse. I do have a cleaner and peppermint shrimp, at least 10 hermits ( at last count ) and snails but they only come out at night for the last year since I added the first trigger and wrasse. Gotta give them credit, it didn't take them long to figure out there buddies were getting eaten when it wasn't dark.

 

[AdamNC]

All I’ll say is this. In my 29 gallon, I never had an algae issue until I started getting rid of these.

 

[mta_morrow]

Had them in my last tank and no algae issues. They did eat all my coralline, but that's a good thing IMO.

We all spend good money to get porus rock for bacteria, then get all happy when it covered and sealed with coralline.

Don't get me wrong, I like some purple rock too, just not all of it. And I want the bacteria in the rock to have easy access to all they need to do their job.

And when the day comes that my rock is getting all purple and if I don't have any of these little white stars, I will buy an urchin to start eating the coralline.

Of course this is just how I look at it.

They will start dying off once there is no more algae, and come right back if you get it again.

 

[DSC reef]

We have a harlequin and he's to cool of a tank mate to get rid of. He did a great job on the asterinas so now we're gonna feed him chocolate chip starfish so we can keep him.

 

[HB AL]

All I’ll say is this. In my 29 gallon, I never had an algae issue until I started getting rid of these.

Good point, I havnt had an algae issue in the 2.5 years this tanks been setup, but didnt really notice the stars till around a year ago.

 

[vetteguy53081]

That’s an idea but what will they eat when the stars are gone? Can’t let em starve. Adding asterinas on a regular basis doesn’t seem plausible imo.

Buy a $9.99 chocolate chip star when theyre gone. Will be a month or more supply of food for Harlequin

Coraline loss may be low calcium ( have you tested calcium levels? )

 

[wmwesty]

So over the coarse of the last 5 months or so I've noticed 90% of my purple coralline has disappeared off my rocks and red coralline is replacing it at a quick pace. knowing my params for alk, calc, mag, etc.. are spot on by evidence of testing and all the corals thriving it just came to me that it must be the many stars like the one pictured being the culprits. They only come out on the glass at night and retreat back onto the rocks in the day. Not looking for a solution since I really don't care at this point so long as they don't turn into sps eaters. There are hundreds in there since if I don't clean the glass for a few days they are all over it before the lights come on. I counted 45 on the front panel just the other day and largest being about the size of a nickel, most arms I counted on one was 10! So are these coralline eaters?

The main reason they are on the glass when the lights come on is that they are busy grazing on the algae which is their main food source

 

[rosshamsandwich]

Mostly, they come out at night....mostly.....

 

[cboltsd01]

I put a harlequin shrimp in to help eradicate these. I'm not a fan of seeing white marks everywhere from them eating my coraline.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

I put a harlequin shrimp in to help eradicate these. I'm not a fan of seeing white marks everywhere from them eating my coraline.

i agree..it looks terrible..

 

[HB AL]

My rocks are pretty much covered by a lot of different corals so I don't really see anything they are causing to make it look terrible. My main concern when I posted was if they would ever eat the corals, was happy to hear that wouldn't be the case.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

coral warfare much?