Asterina & mini brittle starfish

[ptreef]

I don't mind a few here and there, but looking for some good ways to keep them under control. They seem to be increasing.

I have a lunar wrasse that seems to like the ocasional mini brittle starfish when I pull one from my frag tank and toss in the main tank. I seem to be seeing quite a few of the asterina starfish. Any other fish that like to eat them?

I think the Harlequin shrimp is out as I don't want to run into issues with him if he runs out of Asterina's

 

[thegrun]

They tend to diminish in numbers over time, there numbers are almost always higher in a new tank. I've seen pictures of tanks where they are quite numerous, but I've never had an issue with them getting out of hand.

 

[ptreef]

tank is 2 yrs old now, and never really noticed them until last month or two.

 

[cloak]

You might want to start removing the asterina stars on sight. There's been numerous reports on these stars eating certain corals such as zoanthids. Also, a tank with a lot of these in it just looks horrible IMO. Almost like the tank has got a bad case of chicken pox or something. Something to think about.
I wouldn't worry about the brittle star population. There's a lot of hobbyists out there that would love to have an abundace of these critters in it. Great little janitors.

 

[ptreef]

ok, I will start picking put and see how it goes. Hopefully they start to fall off in population. They are not crazy populations yet.

 

[BuckeyeFrags26]

I have a somewhat same prob. with the stars. I just pick them out of my system and toss them away in trash!


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[tkeracer619]

Be persistent and remove them every time you see them.

Asternias suck. Mini brittles are awesome.

If the population is expanding they are feeding on something. A lot of times the tank is being overfed or the clean up crew is not sufficient. Check nutrient export/import.

 

[ptreef]

Be persistent and remove them every time you see them.

Asternias suck. Mini brittles are awesome.

If the population is expanding they are feeding on something. A lot of times the tank is being overfed or the clean up crew is not sufficient. Check nutrient export/import.

Nitrate is 0 po4 is ~ .01 or less.

I have been feeding tank coral frenzy a bit lately. And my cleanup crew is small. Ill pull them as well as cut back on the coral foods.