Asterina sea stars

[Michael Brumit]

I have got a outbreak of little starfish all over my glass. From what i can tell they look like asterina sea stars but instead of white they are a very bright blue. They look just like the ones in the display tank at the critter but blue. I am just wondering if anybody has experiance with these from the research i have been doing some people say they are bad and will eat polyps others say they are good and clean with no problems. Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Mikeyjer]

Are they really blue or is it from your actinic lighting?

 

[zef004]

I got them to and been trying to get them out of my tank. I was hopeing that intercepter would kill them but it didn't but redbug are all gone. Yes. Sorry can't be much help but if you find something that works please share.

 

[sedor]

There was some sort of ornamental shrimp thats eats them...I forget the name...maybe someone else knows?

 

[luckyfish]

Harlequin shrimp eat them but they only eat starfish and some urchins. So, once they go through all of the starfish they will starve.

 

[NeveSSL]

Unless, of course, you keep buying cheap starfish to feed them.

Brandon

 

[Michael Brumit]

I turned the actinics off just to make sure and they are blue. What kind of cheap starfish do you feed to the harlequin shrimp? I know people feed chocolate chip stars to them but i don't want it to get into my corals. Does anybody know if these blue stars will deffinatly go after my corals or not? I have been watching them and so far no problems but i would rather be safe then sorry.

 

[NeveSSL]

I was thinking brittles to be honest. You could possibly order them in bulk and keep them in your refugium until it was time for the harlequin shrimp to eat again.

Brandon

 

[waynesworld]

Michael I have them in all my tanks and never had any problems with them I have a Harlequin shrimp also but they repuduce fast enough to keep him happy.

 

[Amazon4]

I have thousands of them. We added a harlequin a little while ago. If he manages to eat all of them I'll be amazed, but I'd then buy starfish to keep him fed...he's really cool

 

[DMBillies]

Re: Asterina sea stars

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15397136#post15397136 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Michael Brumit
I am just wondering if anybody has experiance with these from the research i have been doing some people say they are bad and will eat polyps others say they are good and clean with no problems. Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

I have asterinas for sure (never heard of them being bright blue though) and I have never had them pick on anything... and I've had them in every tank I've ever had.

I think there is one of two things going on with the reports of these little stars eating corals: 1) There is a species that looks similar to the more common asterina that is causing problems in certain tanks; 2) The stars are eating already dead/dying coral flesh and assuming they are the cause and not an effect.

I'd guess #2 is more than likely the case with people looking for something to blame when something goes wrong in the tank. If you can verify that they are asterinas (do you have a pic and would it show the blue you are talking about?) then I think you could be pretty safe letting them go... especially if they are all over and you're not noticing any problems right now with them eating corals.

 

[Michael Brumit]

I will try to get a picture of one this week. So far they are causing no problems at all, if anything they are doing a good job cleaning the glass. I will post pics as soon as i can get a clear one. They are just so small right now.

 

[Michael Brumit]

pics

pics

[/IMG]

[/IMG] Some pics of the stars. I know the quality is not very good but they are still pretty small and i am still getting the hang of using a camera.

 

[Michael Brumit]

You can see the blue pretty well. This is with the actinics off. Any suggestions on species would be appreciated. I just want to make sure that they won't do any damage to the corals. No problems so far. They seem to just be cleaning algae as far as i can tell.

 

[Michael Brumit]

Bump. still looking to see if anybody has this type and if there is any solid info on them. Thanks

 

[NeveSSL]

See if you can get a good picture of them, bro. That would help more than anything.

Brandon

 

[NeveSSL]

Oh, wait, I just saw the pic you posted. Quite honestly, those look exactly like mine. Its like they have black speckles sorta on them.

Brandon

 

[james3370]

asterina smurfs

 

[Nataliek2270]

I have tons of them too, and they leave my one mushroom that came with my LR alone. The biggest are about the size of a pencil eraser and they are blue too. My rocks came from a tank with TONS of corals in it, SPS, LPS, Shrooms, Rics, Softies/zoas, you name it he had it, and they seem to leave them all alone. Hope this helps