done with asternia stars

[NanoReefWanabe]

well i have always been pro these little guys"¦.that ends tonight"¦just found a large one (covers my thumb nail) mowing down on a perfectly healthy flower anemone"¦i was just looking at my tank at dinner and they were all accounted for, tonight doing some maintenance i was like hey where did that little bugger go (the flower) as i have nine of them now"¦couldn't find him figured he was on the move as he was there at dinner"¦

well reason i couldn't see him was because there was a very large star parked directly on top of him"¦as i pulled the little turd off i could see the nem was almost completely gone just little pieces of him left and little piece hangin out of the star"¦not a happy camper"¦

i have never seen these things eat anything in my tank and i have had them in there from the get go, over three years"¦i guess this one was getting too big for algae and micro fauna...

 

[Calappidae]

How many rock flowers are there? Harlequin shrimp aren't the best around anemones..

 

[Mikefromaz]

My LFS told me I could have as many as I wanted from their display tanks and gave me a net. I thought that was incredibly generous. It wasn't until ten years later that I found out they are supposed to eat Coral. The star population waxed and waned over the years. There was even a long stretch where I thought they had gone extinct in my 80g. They came back and even when I had dozens of them I never saw any coral damage. I believe they eat coral, but mostly they are a be genuine mystery to me. I wonder if they only go that way if they are desperate?

 

[Calappidae]

My LFS told me I could have as many as I wanted from their display tanks and gave me a net. I thought that was incredibly generous. It wasn't until ten years later that I found out they are supposed to eat Coral. The star population waxed and waned over the years. There was even a long stretch where I thought they had gone extinct in my 80g. They came back and even when I had dozens of them I never saw any coral damage. I believe they eat coral, but mostly they are a be genuine mystery to me. I wonder if they only go that way if they are desperate?

There are several species. Some are reef safe some are not. It depends on whether or not the odds are in your favor... reason why it best to deal with them before finding out.

 

[pufferpoison]

I love these guys (in my FUGE). I go to the LFS and they basically let me net what I want of them. I have found one that was about the size of a 50 cent piece. I didn't think that got that big, but their 300 G tank regularly has quarter size stars.

I read somewhere there's like 13-14 different kind and some are reef safe and some aren't.

 

[robotman]

linckia starfish eat them, ive been seeing posts and pictures of linckia starfish directly over them

 

[loves2reef]

well i use them as snacks for my shrimp inbetween CC stars but they never mess with anything. From everything ive gathered and read its only the dark black ones that tend to eat coral

 

[thenewguy997]

Which ones are reef safe?

 

[Reefvet]

The tiny, no bigger than a quarter of an inch, are fine in my reef. They've been there for a long time and I never see them on anything except the rock.

They may be what's keeping my purple linkia alive. (not my picture)

 

[thenewguy997]

The tiny, no bigger than a quarter of an inch, are fine in my reef. They've been there for a long time and I never see them on anything except the rock.

They may be what's keeping my purple linkia alive. (not my picture)

Yours are white right? I wonder if the lfs,would hand some out

 

[snorvich]

My recollection is: White ones are good, dark ones, not good.

 

[Donkeykong]

I have had problems with the white ones as well, I could never prove they were eating my zoas, but the were definitely crawling thru them and pestering them enough to start losing polyps. I threw in a harlequin shrimp and in a few months they were all gone. Then I just gave the shrimp a CC starfish once a month and he was a pretty cool addition to the tank.

 

[thenewguy997]

I really want to try a blue linckia eventually though....

If i get a lil zoa damage i can manage..

 

[Calappidae]

I've heard and seen images of blue linkcia eating them but whether it's true or not that they activitly hunt them down I doubt they will be fast enough to even control the population.