Starfish to help with asterinas.

[mushrommy]

I have these little asterinas that are munching on my zoas. I heard that blue linckias and nardoa stars would eat asterinas and they look pretty cool! Is there a way I can spot feed them to keep them alive? My tank is about 20 years old.

 

[mushrommy]

One more thing, will the starfish kill my urchin.

 

[mushrommy]

Hello?

 

[jda]

Harlequin Shrimp eat asternia snails, among other starfish and anything else with tube feet, like urchins. They are a sensitive invert and can suffer and die if no3 and po4 are too high. They also will die when they run out of starfish to eat.

 

[mushrommy]

Harlequin Shrimp eat asternia snails, among other starfish and anything else with tube feet, like urchins. They are a sensitive invert and can suffer and die if no3 and po4 are too high. They also will die when they run out of starfish to eat.

Are you talking about starfish or Harlequin shrimp

 

[Ef4life]

How big is your tank?

 

[mushrommy]

How big is your tank?

52 gallon corner

 

[Ef4life]

Long term a harlequin shrimp is going to die, so if you go that route you need to be responsible and rehome it with another reefer or back to an lfs. Or buy chocolate chip starfish and cut legs off to feed it which is kind of messed up imo but that’s what it eats.

But 50 gallons is small enough where you can manage the population. I’d get some long metal tweezers to manually remove them, I’d start with 2-3x a day going through for about 10 minutes removing every one you see. Do that for a week or 2 then cut back to maintenance and do it once every few days to keep the population in check.

 

[saltyhog]

Blue Linckia will eat them but not enough to make a dent IME. This is my Linckia in the process of eating an asterina.

Harlequin shrimp will eliminate them but then you have to feed them because starfish are all they will eat.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I have these little asterinas that are munching on my zoas. I heard that blue linckias and nardoa stars would eat asterinas and they look pretty cool! Is there a way I can spot feed them to keep them alive? My tank is about 20 years old.

Not sure on the Nardoa, but the survival beyond ~8-13 months is abysmal for Linckias; I have heard they tend to last while the "asterina" (technically Aquilonastra) population lasts (typically ~2-3 years from what I've seen), but they typically die off after that. They are thought to eat biofilms (something we can't purposefully replicate in our tanks), and I'm not aware of anyone who has successfully kept them alive long term with spot feeding; it might be possible to do so, but I'm not sure (and it would probably be relatively labor-intensive).

If you're able to farm the Aquilonastra in a separate tank for the purpose of feeding your Linckia, that could be an interesting experiment to do.

Honestly, from what I've seen, the people who can keep reef-safe stars long term don't know why the stars survive in their tanks but not in other tanks. It may be a biofilm thing, it may be an aquarist feeding thing, etc. Regardless, most people just recommend putting the star in a large tank (the minimum recommendation that I've seen is 75 gallons with plenty of rock) and hoping for the best.

One more thing, will the starfish kill my urchin.

A Linckia would not kill your urchin, and I doubt a Nardoa would either (last I checked, they're also thought to be biofilm eaters).

 

[mushrommy]

Not sure on the Nardoa, but the survival beyond ~8-13 months is abysmal for Linckias; I have heard they tend to last while the "asterina" (technically Aquilonastra) population lasts (typically ~2-3 years from what I've seen), but they typically die off after that. They are thought to eat biofilms (something we can't purposefully replicate in our tanks), and I'm not aware of anyone who has successfully kept them alive long term with spot feeding; it might be possible to do so, but I'm not sure (and it would probably be relatively labor-intensive).

If you're able to farm the Aquilonastra in a separate tank for the purpose of feeding your Linckia, that could be an interesting experiment to do.

Honestly, from what I've seen, the people who can keep reef-safe stars long term don't know why the stars survive in their tanks but not in other tanks. It may be a biofilm thing, it may be an aquarist feeding thing, etc. Regardless, most people just recommend putting the star in a large tank (the minimum recommendation that I've seen is 75 gallons with plenty of rock) and hoping for the best.

A Linckia would not kill your urchin, and I doubt a Nardoa would either (last I checked, they're also thought to be biofilm eaters).

Ok, thanks

 

[mushrommy]

Blue Linckia will eat them but not enough to make a dent IME. This is my Linckia in the process of eating an asterina.

Harlequin shrimp will eliminate them but then you have to feed them because starfish are all they will eat.

Ooh, pretty