Asterina Help

[skidoctor]

So I've been noticing more and more asterina stars lately. Most of them seem to stay on the glass. I've been picking the ones I can reach and throwing them in my sump, figuring that they serve some filtration purpose. There are a few on the LR in my display, but they seem to stay away from the corals- for now. I realize that the population is only going to grow. I was wondering how worried should I be; is there any other solution to rid them other than a harlequin shrimp; and will a harlequin shrimp coexist with a coral banded shrimp with a bad attitude? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

stop throwing them in your sump!

stop throwing them in your sump!

when a star goes through your pump it gets chopped up and each piece becomes another star

:headwalls:

 

[FSU3NOLES28]

Turn lights out and siphon em out.

Best way to do it.

 

[Spartan]

They're generally harmless, but supposedly a few varieties may feed on corals. If u have them in large numbers, it should b obvious if they're coral eaters. So I'd infer u dont have an issue there. The population will boom then crash so it's just matter if they annoy you.

 

[tmz]

They can be a problem and some do attack corals. Trouble is telling the good from the bad is beyond most of us. They can become plague and even those not eating coral can irritate it in large numbers. I remove them and discard them when I see them. I hate doing it because there are living things and fun to see.
I as others have used harlequin shrimp , a nutural starfish predator in the past. That works for a while but eventually the harlquins will die without enough fresh starfish. Choppping up live choclate chip stars to keep them alive when asterina populations dwindled was too greusome for me. Then when the harlequins are removed or die the asterina come back ifall things are equal. Less excess food, detritus and algae will help control them.

I used a siphon fashioned from airline tubing fitted with a piece of rigid airline tubing on the intake end to siphon them out in large numbers when I hadtehm in large numbers from the galss. The water flow is small ,so you can get alot in a bucket and then just reuse the water if you wish. The best time is just before the lights come on. They hang under rock ,etc during the day. It's also a good idea to p[ick up a frag or coral and look under the base . They re likely lurking there. Now I just pick off a few a day.

 

[tent boy]

I am sure there is someone nearby that would love those to feed to their harlequin.

 

[skidoctor]

The population isn't too large as of yet, I I've stopped throwing them in my sump- thanks Gary- but I don't have the heart to kill them. Yet. They haven't disturbed any corals so far, so I'm going to try to clean up my parameters and feed less. I will be upgrading to a 90g soon, in which case I can reconfigure my inhabitants so my coral banded isn't the one running the display. I think he's going to get the big time out so I can actually house other inverts in my DT. At that point I can probably get a harlequin if necesary, but I'm not chopping up chocolate chip stars to feed them. So, if they do get worse I will make a post for anyone who might want to take them as food for their own harlequins. Thanks for the input.

 

[AliciaP]

I have a lot and have been tossing them into my sump onto algae covered rocks. I hope they don't get chopped up and make more work in the long run! I started removing them because I finally came to the conclusion that they are eating my coraline algae.

 

[tmz]

I've seen them chew up zoanthus. Ther is a photo in on of my corals books, can't remeber which one, of some asterina damaging an leather coral. There are some that are attacking sps per folks in the sps forum. A cute menace.

 

[jsteele]

I have a harliquin in my tank.I just drop a small star fish in the tank once a month. Seems to keep him happy and I don't have to cut it up.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I have a lot and have been tossing them into my sump onto algae covered rocks. I hope they don't get chopped up and make more work in the long run! I started removing them because I finally came to the conclusion that they are eating my coraline algae.

I've seen Asterina eat corallines. And corals... but most Asterina are harmless algae eaters. There might be different species that prefer different foods or it might simply be that individuals develop a taste for a certain food item.
Whatever the case.. keep an open mind regarding Asterina. There's no clear cut conclusions on their dietary preferences.
I'm a 'live and let live' type person and I rarely recommend getting rid of biodiversity in any aquarium but once you see an Asterina eating the polyps on a prized Acropora it gets really easy to decide to banish it to someplace VERY DRY.

 

[AliciaP]

I am the same. When it comes down to it, no matter what, I feel bad about sentencing it to just die. I put them in the sump where there's lot of algae and some coraline I don't mind eaten. In mt DT, after 3 years in the hobby, I finally have the coralline growing and I'm not about to watch something eat it all away.

 

[Subw00er]

Something a little less aggressive than a harlequin may be a bumblebee shrimp. They also eat star fish feet and are really cute.