Little star fish

[billyzbear]

I have a lot of these little star fish looking things. What eats them? An arrow crab?

 

[KWoo008]

Hard to say what they are w/o any pics. They may be Asterina stars. I hear Harlequin shrimps may go for them. Can someone confirm this?

 

[billyzbear]

Yes they are called Asterina stars. A quick search gave me that Nardoa stars eat them. What else may eat them?

 

[Bergovoy]

dont worry about them, they are good for your tank and a good sign uyour tank is doing well...

They should come out at night,a nd crawl up the glass an pretty much clean clean clean...

Good job

 

[billyzbear]

I understand they clean. I have soo many of them they are everywhere. I think they are stealing food from corals. They crawl on them and make them close.

 

[coralGoodie]

I have a tiny white star fish that I see at night,

 

[nava405]

they are pretty cool, i once thought they were bad, but all i saw is that they hide in the rock and have hands out grab food.

my cleaner shrimp died this afternoon and now it's inside the rock somewhere.

 

[smoney]

You could get a harlequin Shrimp, they are so cool looking and reef safe, they go out at night and hunt for those starfish.

 

[GinaSofia]

A Harlequin may or may not eat them..they seem to prefer Linckia..and you'd have to be prepared to continue feeding your Harlequin starfish since that is all they'll eat.

 

[smoney]

ehh true, but they usually take to those little stars.

 

[coast2coast7390]

Harlequin eat them...but theyre good they graze on algae on the sides of the tank and rocks

 

[billyzbear]

Thanks everybody. I just have to many of these and I need to see less of them.

 

[coast2coast7390]

when you do water changes just siphon them out or take a net to them in the morning and throw them in your sump

 

[alohagreg]

I've seen my perppermint shrimp eating them, but there are still stars in the tank anyway.

 

[billyzbear]

I wished mine did.

 

[Bergovoy]

mine dont show up til nighttime. And the numbers go up and down, they seem to have a sense of balance...

I would not bother with them, if you remove them you are basically chaning a balance you ahve in your tank right now. IF things are okay with everything else, then I would not know it...

bill

 

[billyzbear]

I have alot, there everywhere. In the hundreds. My tank is 3x2x2.

 

[coast2coast7390]

net them up then and throw them in the sump

 

[chevegan]

Let me give you the low down .

The Asterina stars (don't remember actual spelling) are totally reef safe. i had an outbreak and did all the research. The reason you are having an "outbreak" is because of high nutrient lvls. They are totally ok. But now you know what you're dealing with, take the time to find out why you have extra nutrients in your tank. Harlequin shrimps may or may not eat them. Worth a shot if they are bugging you. I Siphoned a bunch out, took out all my rock and found 4 dead snails rotting. Since then there has been a sharp decline in the population.

 

[energy_crisis]

Sell them!!!! Call it cleaner package add-on.