Harlequin shrimp

[marke]

Someone at the swap mentioned to me that asterina starfish can damage Zoas? They suggested this shrimp so as to eat them up. I have been told by others asterinas are ok and reef safe? I have also heard harlequin shrimp can be tricky to keep? Need some advice? What do you think?

 

[OceanLandlord]

worked great for me, have seen the stars crawling on zoas and maybe maybe not eating them at the very least they were irritating them. The harlequin knocked them out pretty quick. Very cool shrimp with lots of personality if his cave is someone visible. Only bad thing is once all the asternias are gone you have to feed him chocolate chip starfish legs or some other starfish alternative or trade him/give him away to the next person.

 

[CoachOJ]

I had them and they definitely take care of the problem. Once they get the asternias down, you will need to feed them other starfish or they will die. Not really tricky to keep. Plus they are really cool to see in the tank.

I've read that some people keep starfish in their sump and cut off legs to feed and wait to regenerate so they have a constant supply. I could never do that but I did throw small sand sifters in from time to time.

 

[marke]

Where do I get a bag of chocolate star legs? Joking. What if they are done with all your starfish. What will they eat next if not fed by us? Will they die. Or eat other junk in the tank

 

[Stylo328]

They will starve to death.

 

[nivram]

I've had asterina starfish in my 65. All the did was munch on coralline algae. Their population increased and decreased with the amount of coralline I had. With that said I've heard there is a type that might eat or pester zoas. I remember something about them having uneven legs.

 

[DgenR8]

There are a ton of different little white stars that we lump into one group and call "Asterina". I've read loads of claims that Asterinas eat corals, and each time a bunch of people sure that the stars are harmless.
My guess is that some Asterinas do have a negative effect on at least some corals, and others (probably the majority) are benign.
I've also seen people report success in using Harlequin shrimp to eradicate Asterinas, and I've seen claims that the shrimp never touched the Asterinas at all.
Again, guessing, Harlequins don't eat all species of Asterina stars.
What I know is fact that I can add is that Harlequins eat exclusively starfish. From experience, I can tell you that they like Chocolate Chip stars.
Price and availability of said starfish should be considered before making this purchase. I kept a large pair of Harleys, and they would easily go through a medium size CC star inside of a week, a smaller pair, maybe you feed every two weeks. I was paying $15-20 per star and had to get them when I could and keep them in my sump, you can't count on being able to find them regularly.

 

[jdhuyvetter]

I have two, 300 gallon tanks and a 100 gallon frag tank all plumbed together as a single system. In my 300 gallon stoney coral tank, I have had a pair of Harlequins for over a year. No asterinas at all. In my 100 gallon frag tank, I have a single Harlequin and no asterinas. In my 300 gallon soft coral tank, I have fish that chow down on shrimp, so no harlequins. Tons of asterinas in this tank. I net them out and throw them into the other two tanks from time to time (I pulled out about 20 this morning).

In my system, I rarely see the shrimp. Lately, I have one shrimp that comes out each evening. This morning for the first time in about 4 months, I saw both shrimp at the same time. Haven't seen the one in the frag tank for months, but no asterinas, so assume he is still there.