...I could have entitled this thread "Carpet-surfing starfish". But that would have been a cheap shot...
When I set up my tank with VLR (very live rock) I rescued a number of living critters that had fallen off the rock on that cold January day. One of them was a beaten-up little starfish. Neat, thought I.
Until a pass through 'inverts' id'd it as an asterina of the coral-munching sort. I'm sps and lps, and this was not a comforting thought.
Now some people caution that this is primarily a coralline cruncher, mostly harmless, and I hoped that was the case.
Sure enough, it showed up after five months munching coralline. I couldn't get it. The lights cycled off. I spent two days researching what might get the thing, and all I could come up with was harlequin or bumblebee shrimp, the former of which is a beautiful creature that couldn't survive after the supply of starfish (1, I hope) ran out. The other, maybe, but I've ceased to believe that things eat what they're advertised to eat, unless you bet they wouldn't.
In two days it ended up in a position where I could nab it. And honest, I meant to put it in the sump. It slipped out of the tweezers as I turned around to get off the ladder, and went somewhere I can't tell. Carpet surfing. I can't find him, and I refuse to feel guilty. I just hope he didn't reproduce while he was in there.
When I set up my tank with VLR (very live rock) I rescued a number of living critters that had fallen off the rock on that cold January day. One of them was a beaten-up little starfish. Neat, thought I.
Until a pass through 'inverts' id'd it as an asterina of the coral-munching sort. I'm sps and lps, and this was not a comforting thought.
Now some people caution that this is primarily a coralline cruncher, mostly harmless, and I hoped that was the case.
Sure enough, it showed up after five months munching coralline. I couldn't get it. The lights cycled off. I spent two days researching what might get the thing, and all I could come up with was harlequin or bumblebee shrimp, the former of which is a beautiful creature that couldn't survive after the supply of starfish (1, I hope) ran out. The other, maybe, but I've ceased to believe that things eat what they're advertised to eat, unless you bet they wouldn't.
In two days it ended up in a position where I could nab it. And honest, I meant to put it in the sump. It slipped out of the tweezers as I turned around to get off the ladder, and went somewhere I can't tell. Carpet surfing. I can't find him, and I refuse to feel guilty. I just hope he didn't reproduce while he was in there.
