Asternia Starfish

[Steven1015]

I was wondering do harlequin shrimp eat asternia starfish? In my tank i have been noticing more and more asternia starfish is there any problem with this should i try to introduce some harlequins to the tank to reduce these populations if they even eat them.

 

[Tennyson]

Some people say asterina's are good, some say they are bad. There are certain species that eat corals, and others that are harmless algae grazers. depends on what kind you have.

A harlequin will do an excellent job in getting rid of the asterina's. They'll eat them all and look beautiful. But once the population of asterina's is gone you should feed it feeder stars.

 

[snorvich]

Agree with the answer above.

 

[Pulp Fishin]

+2

 

[jhildebrand]

Yeah, not cool though to get a harlequin if you don't plan on getting feeders for it or have another reefer with stars lined up to pass it to. The stars are harmless in almost all cases unless they reach plague proportions, which would most likely be due to excess food sources for them...

 

[crvz]

I've had some serious issues with asterina stars myself (including zoanthid consumption) and have been considering getting a couple harlequin shrimp myself. So here's a question in the theme of the thread; say if you my 150 has, in all likelihood, over 1000 asterinas in it, would 1 or 2 harlequin shrimp be able to decimate the population, or just keep it in check?

 

[Tennyson]

1000?? I don't think 2 or 1 would be able to get rid of a population that big, only keep it under control. 4 would probably do it-geting rid of all of them.