Black Asterina Star-bad news

[SaltwaterAdict]

Caught one of these little bastards munching on my blue monti cap! I'm going to keep my eyes wide open for any new visitors. Any tips on eradicating the nasty critters. They seemed pretty cool before I got sps. Now it looks like the have to go! :wavehand:

Here's what they look like:

 

[LifeAquatic]

How do you know it was munching on your monti cap? Think I have hundreds of those in my tank and they dont bother anything. Those are the little white starfish??

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

How do you know it was munching on your monti cap? Think I have hundreds of those in my tank and they dont bother anything. Those are the little white starfish??

I found him on the underside of the monti clearly eating his way through. He dug/ate a burrow for himself. He was burried in there. I saw a white area forming and today a whole piece about the size of a dime was gone!! I thought a fish might've bumped it. Picked up the coral to inspect it, not thinking anything would be there and sure enough there was the little monster eating exactly where the missing piece was! I'm thinking there's gotta be more of them. The white ones are supposedly fine, but the blacker ones are not fun. The monti is pretty big so not a big loss. It will eventually grow back, I'm really concerned about the sps now.

 

[bobbychullo]

i caught one eating my zoas. left a white spot where i removed him from the zoa mat tissue. took a while to recover.

i too thought they were cool, had 2 that came in on some chaeto that i threw in my tank.

six months later I pulled out about 14 of them. one or 2 a day for over three weeks, theones i pulled out slowly got smaller and smaller, i'm sure i was finding babies. all of a sudden they were coming out of the rock like crazy. been a few months and have not seen another one.

 

[SBRob]

Wow thats crazy. I didn't know there was a black type I'll definitely be looking out for them now.

 

[reefWW96]

If anyone ever has a bad outbreak of these, that would be a good excuse to get a harlequin shrimp.

 

[bobbychullo]

i should be clear, mine were not black, they were a brownish/light beige...

 

[Bigcefa]

yes harlequin shrimp eat those like candy yum yum

 

[purge43]

I had quite a few with two harlys to keep the population in check. I started the brs bio pellet system, using the zeobak , zeofood and zeostart. All asterina disappeared. Its been posted in another forum that ulns may remove there primary source of food.

 

[klepto]

If anyone ever has a bad outbreak of these, that would be a good excuse to get a harlequin shrimp.

I disagree. That would NOT be a good excuse at all. In my experience the small "asterina" starfish that breed rapidly in captivity are not substantial enough to sustain Harlequin shrimp long term.

According to LiveAquaria, "you will need to supply the Harlequin Shrimp with starfish (Asterias rubens for adults, and Linckia for juveniles). The adults may also eat sea urchins."

These are much larger starfish than typical asterinas. Most hobbyists will not devote the time and resources to keep Harlequin Shrimp adequately fed. Unless one is fully prepared to meet their requirements, purchasing them to control an asterina problem would be a mistake.

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

I had quite a few with two harlys to keep the population in check. I started the brs bio pellet system, using the zeobak , zeofood and zeostart. All asterina disappeared. Its been posted in another forum that ulns may remove there primary source of food.

I think you're onto something.....I had a massive explosion of hair algae because the tank was going through it's algae phases. Since then, with my skimmer turned on and my fuge going. There is no more algae in the display like before. Amazing what refugiums do and how quick! I'm guessing their food source has minimized dramatically and they're going for whatever they can find. I'll be inspecting this coral daily just to make sure I don't have any unexpected visitors!

 

[msp307]

Harleys rule dude I had these same little peckers mess with zoos and sps got my harleys now there gone and I feed my pair one cc star every two weeks and mine are huge and happy and healthy