Recommend me a starfish?

[dzhuo]

I am starting to notice a bit of algae (most likely hair algae) on my LR. Nothing too serious but I want to get them under control before it really becomes a huge problem. I really want to avoid hermit crabs and snails so I was wondering if there are starfish that I can get to help control the algae? I know there are a ton of critters that eats hair algae but I want to give the starfish a priority. Any thoughts and recommendation?

Obviously, I want one that I can easily feed after the algae's are gone.

 

[Peter T]

Hello,

I am not really aware of any algae eating starfish other than the asterina stars. They have a bad rep of eating corals but IME I have never seen them eat any corals. They are tiny and I don't think I've ever seen them for sale either.

Something similar to stars are urchins. Have you considered getting an urchin? Problem with those is that they also eat coralline algae as well.

 

[dzhuo]

Are Fromia milleporella or Fromia sp. algae eater?

 

[Peter T]

From what I read on them, they eat micro algae invisible to the naked eye and micro organisms and are recommended for mature tanks as they have the food it needs. I have never kept any starfish other than brittle stars and asterinas (hitchhikers!) so hopefully someone that has kept starfish in the fromia genus will chime in

 

[mscarpena]

None that I know of eat hair algae. Some will eat film algae and microbes. Just get some snail, but also something must be causing the algae to grow.

 

[dzhuo]

What about elysia crispata (aka lettuce sea slug)?