Is these pest?

[digitalman0111]

Recently i saw alot of star fish in the tank this is pests harm or harmless to the corals?how to remove them?

 

[iceman79]

There harmless keep them they just eat algae off your glass

 

[tgray3]

Looks like an Asterina star. I have a bunch and they don't seem to bother anything. I've seen another thread that reported that they eat zoo's but the one's i have completely ignore them. If your worried about them pick out the ones you can get to and a Harlequin shrimp will eat the rest.

 

[digitalman0111]

Thanks, I hope they no borther the zoo, there a rock like 15 of them stick around.

 

[zombiereef]

some asterinas are said to go after sps also. i have a few and i pull them out every chance i get. they dont seem to harm anything in my tank, i just dont like things getting out of control. they seem to reproduce very rapidly. i wonder if a harlequin shrimp will eat them at the same rate that they will multiply. that would be cool, then you could have a self-sustaing system for feeding the shrimp. i would just worry that the shrimp will kill all of the stars and then you would have to purchase other stars to feed it.

 

[digitalman0111]

my tank is 30" deep if I try to pick them out that is imposible, but the harlequin shrimp is a good choice for me but it's the reef safe?

 

[jaw969]

We had problems and had to get harlequins to eliminate them. They were going after certain zoanthids in the tank.

 

[digitalman0111]

then what you feed the shrimp after the stars is gone?

 

[SAZAMA]

more starfish

 

[digitalman0111]

hahaha it should go to your tank next Sazama..

 

[68RUSTANG]

Actually Sazama is correct. Some people will keep a Chocolate Chip Star in their sump and feed a leg at a time to the harlequin shrimp.

 

[Tajjo]

My brother has 3 harlequin shrip, they are all very fat. His numbers have reduced but there are still plenty. So if you don't like em get a few. Also in addition you can get an urchin to deplete the food source in hope that they will starve and eventually die off.
They're mainly harmless though the mixture between my trochus snail and those star fish keep my tank very clean.

 

[iceman79]

My sixline used to eat them ... Are these pests... sorry but it drives me crazy each time i look at it