Baddy?

[GreyhoundTrish]

I've found three minute (1/8") blue starfish appearing "critters" in the cube. Bad? I have eradicated them. What are they?

 

[Andrew]

Do you have a picture? May just be a small Brittle Starfish. Is it blue or more of a blueish green?

 

[coast2coast7390]

did you add some rock recently

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Sorry. No picture, as I eradicated the three I found. It's a bluish gray I would say, more than bluish green. Very short armed. No new rock. Just the original rock that's been in their since I started a little over two months ago. Corals, inverts and two OCs have been added in the past month.

 

[Grins]

Look up asterina starfish and see if you had a variant of those.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Yep. Actually we found it in our club forum. Let me find the link.

"Trish go to www.garf.org theres a starfish on there thats small and isnt good for your tank i have some also got to wait till i see them to get them out. they eat corals mostly sps but people are reporting them eating zoas and other corals .
they have 6 to 7 legs and when they get a little bigger two of the legs are longer then the others.
and garf is a cool site

go to the aquarium pest on links on the left of the page and to the sps eating starfish update"

So it seems a harlequin shrimp I need.

 

[coast2coast7390]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10437471#post10437471 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreyhoundTrish
Yep. Actually we found it in our club forum. Let me find the link.

"Trish go to www.garf.org theres a starfish on there thats small and isnt good for your tank i have some also got to wait till i see them to get them out. they eat corals mostly sps but people are reporting them eating zoas and other corals .
they have 6 to 7 legs and when they get a little bigger two of the legs are longer then the others.
and garf is a cool site

go to the aquarium pest on links on the left of the page and to the sps eating starfish update"

So it seems a harlequin shrimp I need.

theyre not bad they eat algae...they "become" pest because the reproduce so fast...they are fine with coral...my LFS had a bunch in theyre DS and decided that they looked bad so they put in a pair of harlequin shrimp...that took care of the problem

i wouldnt get the shrimp because they are going to starve in your tank...they are going to run out of food fast unless you cultivate those starfish

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Yea, that's what I just found out about the shrimp, but it sure seems like something is irritating my zoas.

 

[coast2coast7390]

did you find any on or around your zoos

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Yeppers. I've nabbed four now.

 

[Grins]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10437633#post10437633 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coast2coast7390
theyre not bad they eat algae...they "become" pest because the reproduce so fast...they are fine with coral...my LFS had a bunch in theyre DS and decided that they looked bad so they put in a pair of harlequin shrimp...that took care of the problem

i wouldnt get the shrimp because they are going to starve in your tank...they are going to run out of food fast unless you cultivate those starfish

There are different variants and many have reported the darker ones going after coral.