bowhunterj
New member
should I be concerned of all the asternia starfish I have , I try to pull them out when I see them but there seems to be a lot. do they harm anything ?
asternia starfish
- Thread starter bowhunterj
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Snarky Shark
New member
I have not had any issues with them. In my opinion they are harmless. Others have said they have seen them munching on corals. My advise is to monitor and see if they are agitating or damaging coral to take action as needed.
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+1, I can't remember a tank that I've had in the past 10 years that didn't have them. They get a bad rap for doing what they naturally do, eat dead and dying matter. Reefers see them on corals that are dying or dead and assume the starfish are the cause, rather than just cleaning up the mess that was caused by something else. There may be some that do in fact eat corals, but I've never seen them. Since their eggs survive coral dips, it is very difficult to keep a tank free from them, I consider them part of my clean up crew.
Sounds Fishy
New member
They are okay...
I used to have a ton of them but that was in a different reef set up,I had a few years ago. I don't have any currently,and I miss them...
I used to have a ton of them but that was in a different reef set up,I had a few years ago. I don't have any currently,and I miss them...
bowhunterj
New member
Thanks for the input, I seem to have all white ones , I've read that the silver or grey ones are the bad ones I think i'm going to just let them be.
Nick_Northern
New member
I had a load in my reef, they were fine for months but then got a taste for a particular strain of star polyps and started decimating them pretty quickly. I would say if you aren't noticing them misbehaving then leave them be and just monitor them
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AlSimmons
New member
Until somebody can distinguish the good ones from the bad ones without a doubt I'll continue to treat them all as bad. Diversity is cool and all, but there are some things are tanks can do without, this being one of them. This ugly little starfish is just not worth the risk IMO.
On a side note; I've found that those who do say that they haven't had any problems with these stars usually have rather large tanks. A lot of things can go unnoticed in these larger tanks, just look at the Pix & ID thread at the top of the page. I wouldn't expect one to wake up one morning and find one of your prized sps corals has been stripped down to the bone or a whole colony of zoanthids has disappeared, but just because your not seeing this doesn't necessarily mean that it's not happening.
On a side note; I've found that those who do say that they haven't had any problems with these stars usually have rather large tanks. A lot of things can go unnoticed in these larger tanks, just look at the Pix & ID thread at the top of the page. I wouldn't expect one to wake up one morning and find one of your prized sps corals has been stripped down to the bone or a whole colony of zoanthids has disappeared, but just because your not seeing this doesn't necessarily mean that it's not happening.
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