bad starfish???

fishnfst

fishnfst

New member
Hello all could someone point me to some pics of predatory starfish? I have been seeing these small white starfish in my tank.. I've been pulling them out whenever I see them but I'm not sure if they are detrimental to corals or not? At first I thought they were eating corraline algae off the rocks but I'm not sure...
 
the tiny white ones which look like baby brittle stars are detritus eaters and they are your friends.
 
They don't look like the brittle stars.. I have tons of those.. These look like the ones from the old Hello Kitty cartoons.. I know thats not a very good description.. I'll try and take a picture of one next time I see it...
 
Thanks Norman... That is exactly what I'm experiencing... I originally thought it was pods.. They were probably only eating the dead and dying ones.. I did pick out about 10 of these small starfish that look like the ones in teh pic from the link.. All 10 came out of a colony of my zoas that aren't opening.. I have another one that is not opening now also.. Both colonies are fire and ice.. The other colony is on the bottom of a 15lb piece of rock so I couldn't get to them...

Hopefully I'll see some improvement without the starfish harassing them...
 
Yikes. Glad you got them in time.

Harlequin shrimp will eat asterinas. I think Al G Blenny posted that he uses them to get rid of asterinas.
 
I might have to try that.. I have a bunch of tiny white things in my tank right now.. There looks to be about 50 of them on the sides of the tank.. My eyes aren't good enough to see them though.. I hope they aren't all starfish... Gotta find a magnifying glass....
 
I have exactly the same type of star fish for 3 years with no problems, but when I got some red zoas..they start eating it and I notice less and less zoas open up....now I have to watch them at night and pick them off. I will definitely have to get a Harlequin shrimp for sure because I have a lot of these star fishes.
 
Can you post a picture of your baby snails?

Regards,

Roy

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9578664#post9578664 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishnfst
Just checked out all the little white looking dots.. THey look like baby nassarius snails...
Click to expand...
 
I have several of the asterina stars too, and want to control the population now before they multiply. Can anyone recommend a lfs that sells harlequin shrimp ? Preferably a lfs in the Bay Area.

Thanks in Advance.
 
I saw a couple at aquatic central in sf also...

I tried to take a pic of the snails but they are too tiny for my camera even with the macro setup.. I'll have a friend take the pic with a better camera if I get time... I'm pretty sure they are nassarius snails.. Not positive though.. I have some mid sized ones that look just like my nassarius snails, snorkel and all.. THey have black shells though and the ones I purchased had greyish white shells...
 
I have loads of the little stars in my tank and 6 or 7 small zoo colonies. Never a problem til I got one that did what that one in Norms link was doing. It did it to a couple of polyps and I picked it out and flushed it. Never happened since and the polyps came back. I wouldn't like to have an army of them though.
 
Ugh, well now I'm all worried! One of my AoG polyps closed up and hasn't reopened for a couple days (never saw anything on it, but it was also facing the back), and now I'm seeing all these asterinas crawling near my zoas. Bleh!
 
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