Sea star population explosion

[Aedanmor]

My 90 gallon tank seems to have anywhere from 30 to 60 sea stars at any given time. They are very small. When I had an eel it kept the population down. Now that I’ve shifted to reef and not FOWLR they are all over the place. Is this a concern?

If you zoom in on these pics you’ll see them.

 

[Dsnakes]

Those are asterina stars. They can be a nuisance and known to eat corals on occasion.

 

[Aedanmor]

Those are asterina stars. They can be a nuisance and known to eat corals on occasion.

Hmm. Well that’s not good. Thanks for the ID. Any tips on managing them?

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

yes some species will eat coral and some won’t. they tend to come and go possibly based on available nutrients. get a harlequin shrimp and you’ll be good.

 

[Oscaror]

Asterina stars. Usually just a harmless eyesore but they can eat corals on occasion as @Dsnakes mentioned

 

[Flippers4pups]

I’ve got quite a few of them in my system. Mine have been okay with no corals harmed. Hit or miss.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Hmm. Well that’s not good. Thanks for the ID. Any tips on managing them?

Harlequin shrimp, but once it eats all of them it will starve.

Manual removal.

 

[DSC reef]

I concur with the above. We had the bad ones;Rage

 

[Dsnakes]

@DSC reef hired help to rid his!

 

[DSC reef]

He did such a good job we kept feeding him loved the harlequin.

 

[JoshH]

He did such a good job we kept feeding him loved the harlequin.

Ignored the spider method did you?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ahhh asterina nightmares.
They reproduce like mice by simply dislocating a leg which becomes a new star. I agree on harlequin as mine does take them down.

 

[Marie7]

Asterina I have many at one time, all I did I removed them with my feeding tweezers, every time I see one I pull it out, they tend to damage equipment on tanks if they are to many and normally the brown one eats corals too. ... U see one pull them out before come a plague.

 

[Scotty Buttons]

I had hundreds, they eventually just disappeared and never harmed any coral.

 

[Nick Gianakos]

The harlequin shrimp will definitely help as long as you don’t have or plan to add any other sea stars. Serpent, sand sifting, and any other star will be eaten by the shrimp. I’ve had luck with using nardoa starfish to take down the asterina stars. In the two years I’ve had one he’s been safe with my corals and my clean up crew inverts.

 

[Nick Gianakos]

Harlequin shrimp would work as long as you don’t have or plan to add other sea stars as they will eat them as well. I’ve had luck with a nardoa starfish to take down the asterinas. I’ve had one for about two years and in that time has been safe with my corals and my clean up crew inverts.

 

[Nick Gianakos]

Sorry for the two posts. I wasn’t logged in when I went to post the first one and it didn’t show it in the thread after I logged in.