Asterina's and zoo's

K

kinerson

New member
For the last 6-8 weeks I have noticed many of my zoanthid frags have not been doing well. The skirts on some seem to be partially missing, individual polyps are half closed up, some polyps resemble skinny sticks.

A buddy of mine found a nudi on one of the frags and we thought this was the issue. I have since done multiple fresh water dips with iodine, treated with flatworm exit at higher then normal doses, dipped with coral revive. Not once have I seen a nudi left behind in the dip container. However, I have had for over a year now Asterina star's. They have never seemed to bother anything and always seem to be on the tank walls. Each of my dips always reveals Asterina stars that were on the zoo's. I have heard that they can develop a taste for zoanthids and so I was wondering what you guys thought I should do for dealing with this problem.

Kinerson
 
There are literally hundreds of species of asternia, some harmless grazers, some that will devour healthy polyps and coral tissue. Telling the difference between the good and the bad is near impossible IMO.

Depending on how many you have, manual removal works best. For a large population you can try a harlequin shrimp.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have at least 3 different speices if not many more. They are in a 100gal frag tank that. It's hard to say how many I have but they are everywhere. Hundreds are easily seen. I am wondering how many shrimp I should get? I want to make sure I get enough that they will take care of the problem.
 
I would just get a pair, because of how small they are, they motor through asternias pretty quick. Just remember when they are all gone/heavily depleated, you will need to suppliment their diet with other stars.
 
dalston said:
There are literally hundreds of species of asternia, some harmless grazers, some that will devour healthy polyps and coral tissue. Telling the difference between the good and the bad is near impossible IMO.

Depending on how many you have, manual removal works best. For a large population you can try a harlequin shrimp.
Click to expand...

1+ for manual removal..

I HATE asterina. In my book they are all :thumbdown. I used to think they were ok, until they reached plague proportions and I found them grazing on all sorts of SPS and zoanthids.. Not to mention that they regularly seem to target corallines, making way for nuisance algae to take hold...

Harlequins may be an option, although I hate the idea of removing such a lovely shrimp from the reefs (especially when their diet is so specialized).. I'd love to hear from someone that has successfully controlled an asterina population with a Harlequin. and more about what is involved with keeping these shrimp long term...

Manual removal is my favorite solution.. A harlequin would take days (if not weeks) to remove what I can in a few minutes. I use a small needle, mounted on the end of a piece of dowel: Asterina spear.

You will be amazed how many you have once you start culling them.. I have probably pulled out 500-600 hundred in the last few weeks and finally their population has died down. (my zoanthids esp. look much healthier)

If you cull them regularly, you will keep them under control.
 
Thanks for the input. I will manually remove what I can but I am looking to more less completely remove them if possible. I don't like the idea of only reducing the number of zoa eating asterina's I have. I think I might want to get a pair of shrimp with the idea of lending them out to fellow reefers in my local club who deal with this issue once my numbers are very low.
 
ive seen first hand what asterina starfish are capable of. i've had many a damaged colonies because of those little buggers. harlequin's are a great addition to the tank as well as aterina assassins!:uzi: depending on how bad your infestation is, the shrimp will take anywhere from a day or two.......to a week or two. i've used them several times with amazing success the only problem is once the asterina's are all gone you need to start buying starfish from a LFS(about 1-2 a week depending on size and species) to keep them alive. problem i found with that is there real messy eaters and only eat certain parts of the starfish and discard the rest creating a bit of pollution in the tank. that can get a little expensive.

they are very delicate little shrimp so if you have aggressive tank mates like wrasses, or little area for hiding i would find other ways of removal.
 
Update:

I bought 2 Harlequin shrimps about 2-3 weeks ago. I have only seen one of them in all that time. They like to hide during the day I guess. Anyways, the number of asterina stars is dropping. It has not been instant but slow and steady :)
 
kinerson said:
Update:

I bought 2 Harlequin shrimps about 2-3 weeks ago. I have only seen one of them in all that time. They like to hide during the day I guess. Anyways, the number of asterina stars is dropping. It has not been instant but slow and steady :)
Click to expand...

Make sure the harlequin are getting enough to eat. asternia are a little small and hard to find I would think. Picking them out is the quickest and cheapest way that I know of. The reproduce fast.
 
ccombs70 said:
Make sure the harlequin are getting enough to eat.
Click to expand...
I think this is a good point. It would be good to make sure they are eating.. skewer a large asterina and flip it over nearby the shrimp.
Most of the harlequin I have seen are pretty recluse. If you have intense lighting then they probably will stay in the shade.

It may take them a little while to get used to such a different food source. In the wild they are teaming larger starfish I believe.
 
booo...can you buy asterina stars? Wonder if they prefer one star over the other? Whoops I guess I am jacking this thread...so sorry...
 
I use to have them in my tank...they were harmless but like most people say I would try to get them out just in case....
 
I had these star in my tank, and wiped out a whole colony of Eagle Eyes over a period of 4 days. Got myself a harlequin shrimp, and they were gone within a month. Now I have to keep buying CC stars, but zoos are safe.
 
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