asternia and acro, symptom or cause?

[Eyore]

i have the od bit of basal stn to a few acro which has me foxed, tips growth and colour generally good to all inc effected

i seem to have an abundance of asternia at the moment

though tbh i cannot say i noticed the asternia in such a possition that its conclusive they are eating the acro, when i pulled a few colonies here and there to dip (as i wanted to check for aefw) there has invariably been the odd one or 2 knocking around the base

so the question is- IF asternia do eat acro, would it only be unhealthy flesh? or posdibly my issue (in which case harlequin)

or is this bunk?

 

[jda]

I have thousands of them... or more. They never bother anything. They are kinda like bristle worms and probably will take advantage of a free meal. I bought a Harlequin Shrimp that has knocked them down to a pretty good equilibrium.

 

[markalot]

There are hundreds of starfish we call asterina. I have zillions of them and they never harmed anything but this good looking one with all it's legs and some spotted pattern started eating a new sprout of Pocillopora and had it stripped bare in a day, so I removed it. I haven't seen any other damage.

IMO if they are missing a leg or otherwise not symmetrical then it's the good kind, otherwise keep an eye on it or remove it.