Starfish on SPS

[djbetterly]

Pretty sure it's an asterina but I want to be sure. Found two SPS being munched on today and found a starfish on each of them.

 

[DracoKat]

if I am not mistaken.. the darker/grey ones can eat corals.

White ones are safe.

Someone correct me if I am wrong

 

[djbetterly]

If that's the case, do harlequins eat the dark ones as well?

 

[RussiReef]

My tank was infested with asterina. No negative effect on sps . Harlequin shrimp eats all kind of asterina

 

[bif24701]

I have a lot of the light colored ones for a long time, never bother any coral, LPS, SPS, softies, zoos.

 

[djbetterly]

I have a lot of light colored ones too. A quick google search revealed the black ones are no bueno.

 

[Tahoe61]

if I am not mistaken.. the darker/grey ones can eat corals.

White ones are safe.

Someone correct me if I am wrong

With hundreds of different types it's hard to narrow color related to coral eater or opportunistic feeder. I will agree that the majority of zoanthid eating types seem to grey to blue while some of this coloration feed on coralline, I have also seen pink to red that ate acropora. It appears that beige ones (white t00) are film algae eaters but no one is certain that perhaps some Asterina become opportunistic eaters.

If the starfish are few it seems like more trouble to get a Harlequins than to just manually remove the starfish, but yes a Harlequins will probably eat whatever Asterina are available.

 

[KJ]

Harlequin shrimp take care the problem.

 

[djbetterly]

Any downside to harlequin?

 

[DracoKat]

the only downside I know if is they only eat sea stars. If there's none left in the tank and you don't provide, they will starve