Astrina Stars gone rouge

[PufferNut]

I've always had and enjoyed these stars and never saw any misbehavior before now. Last night I clearly saw one on top of a pally, arms curled around and munching away. Is it possible that my reduced feedings of late and forced them into preying on my coral or are there truly good and bad ones. Did a bunch of reading and get conflicting answers every ware. Im using manual removal and moving them to the fish only, perhaps they will help clean the glass. Just kinda bummed they turned on me.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Asterina = not a species... but a family of seastars.

Under ideal environmental conditions some Asterina will eat (healthy and unhealthy) corals and some won't.

Under stressful conditions some Asterina that don't usually eat corals MIGHT eat them.

Cute 'lil buggers but best to keep their populations down. If you have a lot of them you should take corrective actions IMO/IME.

 

[Eastamherstbias]

Get a harlequin shrimp and let it roam free for a month at the end of the month trade him in or sell him on rc.

 

[tent boy]

I used to catch and remove them using a hose. Finally got a harlequin. He ate all the asterinas in less than a month. Since then I've had to feed him chocolate chip starfish each month.

 

[PufferNut]

Manual removal is underway. The harlequin seems so cool and all but I'm afraid my pistol will make short work of him :/

 

[Foody]

Astrina Stars gone rouge .

I'm wondering if they all spontaneously turned a red-ish hue...as opposed to behaving "off the grid," or gone rogue...

 

[tmz]

I've seen some asterinas cover the mouths of a protopalythoa and zoanthus. Don't know if they are damaging the coral or just eating what the coral is excreting. In any case , they are irritating it to a point where it wont open.

Only the French ones turn red.


I've also seen some attack the stems of zontahidae with evident damage as well as other corals . Borneman documents damage to leathers in one of his books. Some are not coralivores but some are and it's beyond most of us to tell know which is which. Even the non coralivores will irritate corals though. I don't like killing them but don't see a way around it.

When I had a plague of them years ago,

I tired harlequins once. They worked for a few months and then disappeared even with chocolate chip star feedings which I did not enjoy. I still feel bad about it.

The easiest method for me was to siphon them out with a piece of rigid tubing fixed to the end of flexible tubing; just big enough in diameter for them to fit through. They come to the glass at night ; more so if a room light is on. Getting them in the morning just before the lights come or a night is easy and fast. ; a hundred or more can be gathered in minutes. Once they're out of the bucket the water can go back in the tank.

 

[SchmittyG]

This may not be what you want to hear, but isn't it worth the life of a Harlequin starving after it clears out the asterina problem? Ideally you can trade it in at the end of the month or whenever you notice the asterinas gone... Im looking into a Harlequin to help with my serious asterina problem. I want to grow Zoas so bad!

 

[blanden.adam]

This may not be what you want to hear, but isn't it worth the life of a Harlequin starving after it clears out the asterina problem? Ideally you can trade it in at the end of the month or whenever you notice the asterinas gone... Im looking into a Harlequin to help with my serious asterina problem. I want to grow Zoas so bad!

IMO it is our responsibility to care for the animals we steal from the ocean to the best of our abilities, and provide them with as ideal an environment as we can. If you take on a harlequin to solve your astirina problem (which is entirely reasonable), it is then your responsibility to either feed it when the stars are gone, or to find it a new home. Making a mistake taking on an animal that you didn't know you couldn't care for is one thing, but knowingly taking on an animal for a purpose and allowing it to starve when it's done and saying, "it was worth it" is irresponsible.

 

[SchmittyG]

IMO it is our responsibility to care for the animals we steal from the ocean to the best of our abilities, and provide them with as ideal an environment as we can. If you take on a harlequin to solve your astirina problem (which is entirely reasonable), it is then your responsibility to either feed it when the stars are gone, or to find it a new home. Making a mistake taking on an animal that you didn't know you couldn't care for is one thing, but knowingly taking on an animal for a purpose and allowing it to starve when it's done and saying, "it was worth it" is irresponsible.

I'm backin that! Haven't bought the harlequin for that exact reason. Thinking to get one from a LFS that will let me bring back once it jobs done...

 

[johnike]

Send 'em here, we have a special program for them.