Stars Of Death

[sweetpea355]

I have had my tank setup for 3years, Its a 100g with 55g sump/refugim. LPS and softies mainly and a couple of monti's , Every thing was fine untill about 2 weeks ago I got a frag of RDE and a small frag of BamBams, As they were adjusting to the tank I notice a small sandsifter starfish, which I had seen before. I have alot in my tank and always thought they were reef safe( scavengers) but here lately they been sucking on my zoas , the new frags, Which they murder and now there on my star polyps. Is there an predatory species of this starfish? Does anyone know how the rid them? Has anyone had this problem before?

Thanks
Joe

 

[scrmbld33]

can you get a pic?

 

[sweetpea355]

Yeah give me a minute.

 

[TikiDan]

Search Asterina starfish

 

[sweetpea355]

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[scrmbld33]

astrina star, i have heard some eat corals but i dont know how to tell them apart

 

[MinibowMatt]

Yes, Asterina Starfish will eat zoas.. in my case it was the greyish mottled ones...

 

[sabbath]

How would you get ride of them?

 

[MinibowMatt]

Harlequin shrimp.. its the only way... never get them all by hand. Mine were completely gone in 3 weeks... i was infested previously...

 

[scrmbld33]

harlequin shrimp will eat them, sorry if its spelled wrong

 

[atzak]

I just used harlequins to rid my 210. they were gone in weeks. now I feed the harlequins sand sifters every week or so

 

[cristhiam]

are those stars hard like bony, I have some white ones in my tank but I have not seen them on any corals (yet)

 

[MinibowMatt]

yup.

I wouldnt consider color as a true indicator of which stars are good and which are bad... I dont trust any. I lost zoas for over 2 years to them before I realized it was them...

 

[sweetpea355]

atzak, Did you have to do anything special to the shrimp to get him to eat or did the shrimp go right after the stars on his own?

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Will the harlequin eat mini-brittle stars?

I wouldn't mind getting rid of the asternia but don't want the shrimp to go after my mini-brittles.

 

[MinibowMatt]

I still see mini brittles, but not as many...
I guess you need to make a choice.... keep a few mini brittles, or let the asterinas harm your corals.

sweetpea- Harlequins eat ONLY starfish...no need to do anything special... do your homework before purchasing one please.

 

[Kep]

It should be noted that not all Asternia stars eat corals. I have stars that look nearly identical to those pictured above and mine eat algae only.

Just pointing that out so no one freaks out reading this and kills their starfish without first identifying it as a predator.

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchstars.html

 

[Dan Thrash]

yeah, i have ones that look very similar to the pics posted. i've never seen then on my corals, just the glass and bare bottom.

 

[atzak]

My harlequins were eating asterinas within 30 minutes of being in my tank. They seem to leave my brittle stars alone, mini and large ones