asteria Stars

[90g-reefer]

I want to colonize asteria starts in my system so that I can eventually have harlequin shrimp. How could I do this or is this a bad idea?

 

[Sculp1n]

Asteria's aren't the devil and the rumors that they are coral killers is up for debate. Half say they are pests and the other half say they are harmless. I used to have thousands of asteria in my 225 and was worried about the potential threat of them hurting my coral. After getting a few harlequins I found that they took care of every single one in about 1 month and I've been feeding them a star leg about once a week since.

You will have to eventually feed them starfish anyways, just get your harlequin and don't even worry about the asteria.

Good Luck


Sculp1n

 

[mouserusker]

90g - I have dozens of them in my 20 gallon reef, maybe even a hunderd or more. Impossible to count. I never feed them intentionally, I've never seen them hurting or eating anything. I've never even seen them on any of my corals. I don't know where they came from, but if you get some in your tank and you don't have anything to eat the asterias, they will reproduce by just splitting into more of themselves.

Sculp1n - do you keep starfish in a separate tank and harvest legs from them? Or does housing harlequins mean one is obligated to purchasing live "feeder" stars on a regular basis? I've never seen starfish legs for sale anywhere...

 

[BlastoEric1589]

i see people buy chocolate chip stars to feed to the harlequins on a daily basis

 

[ludiNano]

I have many too, white, green tan ones, and never see them on any corals. But i can say the ones in my tank eat coraline algae, leaving stripped white patches.

Someone at my LFS said they wont eat corals but will just smother out thing when infestation gets so bad. But i dont see them multiplying that bad.

 

[kifeter]

I kinda want to do this myself