Baby Starfish
- Thread starter theishkid
- Start date
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
aawww, how cute...a baby starfish.
I don't have a pic Paul, but what are those little itty bitty brittle star looking guys? same coloring as the dude in that pic. I found one in the baby bangaii tank. wich is funny, cause I've never seen one in the display tank, and everything in my 2.5g came out of the display.
I don't have a pic Paul, but what are those little itty bitty brittle star looking guys? same coloring as the dude in that pic. I found one in the baby bangaii tank. wich is funny, cause I've never seen one in the display tank, and everything in my 2.5g came out of the display.
Cellenzweig
New member
I have a predatory species in my tank. A few weeks ago I noticed that zoa polyps started disappearing on a regular basis. Around the same time I had an explosion in the asterina population. I started watching the asterinas on my zoas. Where ever there was an asterina on a zoa, there was bare rock the next day. When my RPEs disappeared off their rock I declared war. In 2 days I removed well over 200 asterinas from my 50g. Every zoa colony was pulled out for a FW dip. I also went out and bought a harlequin shrimp to eat any stars that I missed. (now I need to buy starfish to feed the shrimp... still better than losing coral)
I haven't seen too many in my tank lately and my zoa colonies seem to be getting thick again. Hopefully I've taken care of the problem. From my experience, while I think that only a small percent of asterinas actually eat coral, they are a risk to your coral and should be removed from the tank asap.
captbunzo
Premium Member
I think that a lot of beneficial creatures get removed and people get really excited because of misinformation.
Years ago people removed bristleworms because of the tiny percentage that ended up being predatory fireworms. Nowadays people get excited about flatworms, even though most flatworms are actually beneficial for your tank. And the same can be said for various other critters that somehow find themselves on the "you gotta get it out" list.
Also, we need to be cautious of facts backed only by assumptions. And I am not trying to be mean to anyone, but an example is: I had more asterinas, zoanthids started disappearing, so the asterina MUST have been eating them. Perhaps your water quality went downhill for another reason and the zoanthids started dying. Perhaps there was another predator involved you didn't realize (you have many crabs in the tank?). Etc, etc, etc.
The idea is that assumptions are dangerous. Now, it isn't really a big deal if you pull asterinas out of a tank, even if they are beneficial and not-predatory. It just may be an overreaction.
Here are some articles that discuss, in some amount, Asterina.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rs/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/gallery.htm
Years ago people removed bristleworms because of the tiny percentage that ended up being predatory fireworms. Nowadays people get excited about flatworms, even though most flatworms are actually beneficial for your tank. And the same can be said for various other critters that somehow find themselves on the "you gotta get it out" list.
Also, we need to be cautious of facts backed only by assumptions. And I am not trying to be mean to anyone, but an example is: I had more asterinas, zoanthids started disappearing, so the asterina MUST have been eating them. Perhaps your water quality went downhill for another reason and the zoanthids started dying. Perhaps there was another predator involved you didn't realize (you have many crabs in the tank?). Etc, etc, etc.
The idea is that assumptions are dangerous. Now, it isn't really a big deal if you pull asterinas out of a tank, even if they are beneficial and not-predatory. It just may be an overreaction.
Here are some articles that discuss, in some amount, Asterina.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rs/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/gallery.htm
Obviously they eat many things, else a tank with them in would be devoid of life pretty fast. Howevr, I have seen predation on zoos as well as on SPS that I can only attribute to asterinas.
My experience with SPS. I had a large colony that was rapidly losing tissue. Every day was worse. I noticed a decrease in the flesh over several days. At night with a flashlight there were many asterina on it the leading edge of the tissue loss. Come morning, all asterinas were gone back down the base. You could interpret that as the coral RTN'ing and the asterinas being good cleaners, however that also means that they are more than happy to eat acropora flesh.
Similarly have seen a zoo patch develop a bald patch directly adjacent to an asterina.
Good or bad. Im not prepared to risk having a colony eaten because I can not reach it in my system.
Like I said, I remove them as and when I find them.
My experience with SPS. I had a large colony that was rapidly losing tissue. Every day was worse. I noticed a decrease in the flesh over several days. At night with a flashlight there were many asterina on it the leading edge of the tissue loss. Come morning, all asterinas were gone back down the base. You could interpret that as the coral RTN'ing and the asterinas being good cleaners, however that also means that they are more than happy to eat acropora flesh.
Similarly have seen a zoo patch develop a bald patch directly adjacent to an asterina.
Good or bad. Im not prepared to risk having a colony eaten because I can not reach it in my system.
Like I said, I remove them as and when I find them.
Capt and Paul - great advice. I think both of you REALLY hit the nail on the head. Paul's point is invaluable for everyone in this hobby - what you see may not be what is really happening. Too many of us jump to conclusions based on what we perceive is happening at the time. I have found the people with the least experience tend to speak up and shout without really looking at the big picture. I just think those little stars are ugly and have always removed them. Not to mention the outrageous reproduction! They can be quite abundent rapidly.
Russ Braaten
New member
Asterina definitely eat Coraline algae. I look for white spots on my Coraline algae and find the asterinas near by. When you pull off the star you find a white spot under it.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
For those that haven't read the articles that captbunzo, please do. There is a lot of misinformation about these guys. Yes, a few species are predatory, but like most things in the sea, it's only a few out of many hundred, thousand, or even of ten thousands of species available. Just to illustrate, this is my favorite picture of Asterina starfish. It just goes to show you that there is a wide variety.
You can find the picture in the first article that he posted as well as another similar picture.
You can find the picture in the first article that he posted as well as another similar picture.
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