starfish infestation

[sterling007]

I'm getting a little concerned about some very small starfish that are multiplying like crazy in my tank.

A few months ago I noticed about 1/2 dozen on the glass in the morning when I came out, now I have to guess there are possibly hundreds. On the glass, in the sand on the rock, etc.

They are small. The tiniest ones look a little deformed, or their legs have not all developed. The larger, and larger means less in diameter than a dime, have 5 distinct legs. They are off-white/grey colored.

Any ideas?

 

[cloak]

Asterina stars.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php

 

[sterling007]

yep, that's them, thanks!!! Should I be concerned?? I don't know what to do about them.

 

[cloak]

From what I understand, they're harmless. I'm sure somebody else might tell you different though. If you want to get rid of them, the best thing I think you can do is just manually remove as many as you can right before a water change. Do this repeatedly and you should be able to get ahold of the population. Sounds tedious, but I don't think there's anything that will eat them. Harlequin shrimp maybe.

 

[mscarpena]

Harlequin shrimp will, but will surely die after they are depleted. Removing them manually is probably best.

 

[aquaboy620]

harlequin will eat them. mine got rid of thousands of them in my 240. well know this. if u want to keep a harlequin just feed it a chocolate chip starfish every now and then. I get one once a month and the rest of the time it hunts those asterinas down. they will never go away but will keep the population down. I found the asterinas eating my zoos so be careful. good luck

 

[ReneX]

I've had these in several different tanks and they never seem to cause a problem. A nice addition to biodiversity. But if you see them hanging around a particular coral and that coral begins to do poorly, there's a slim chance you have one of the nasty ones that eats corals. There's not a good way to tell the harmless ones from the much more unusual predators. If I were you I'd just wait and see.

 

[circusink22]

I also got a harlequin to get mine out( they were eating my zoas) I feed my shrimp CC starfish