asternia starfish

[whitetail187]

Just saw a youtube video that scared me about these starfish. guy's acan weren't opening up and noticed it was the asternia starfish that was causing the problem. So i started doing some research and found out there are some that eat zoas.I have a problem growing zoas in my tank and I know there are many asternia stars in there but was unaware they could've been the problem. I've seen them on some zoa frags before but assumed they were just getting the algea around them. Now how to get rid of them? I could get a harlequin shrimp but I have a lot of micro brittle starfish that I would like to keep. not sure if harlequin shrimp eat those as well.
any advice?

 

[cloak]

Unless you've got a ton of these stars in your tank you might want to hold off on the Harlequin shrimp for now. Just manually remove what you can with either your fingers or perhaps a siphon for the next week or so and see if you can put a dent in the population. They usually come out at night, but as soon as the lights come on in the morning is a good time to hunt as well. GL.

 

[Hal]

I too have heard about people claiming that some asterina stars bother corals, but it has been few and far between. I wouldn't freak out until you know that you have a problem, and by that I mean that you observe your asterinas causing trouble. If you are having trouble with zoos there are so many other much more likely causes. I'd start by checking your alk, temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

Lastly, peanut/bobbit worms like to eat zoos. My zoos were disappearing overnight and eventually I found a 30 inch peanut worm in my tank. It was nasty.

 

[cloak]

This isn't my picture, but scenes like this would definitely make me nervous. I don't think I have the time or the patience to wait & see if one of these stars devours a polyp or not. I would nip this in the bud regardless.

 

[Lizzy_lray]

I have a few of them but they don't seem to bother anything even when they are on my corals. I have an eagle eye Zoas as well and it's fine. I just keep an eye on them.