Tiny star fish - any threat?

Those are Asterina stars which I am sure you have probably already aware of. They can supposedly be harmful to SPS in certain situations but I would seriously doubt that they have caused any of the problems you have experienced. In fact from what I have been able to tell most people with asterinas and sps(including myself) have never noticed any ill effects from them.
Chris
 
They'll eat coralline, no question. They make little starfish shaped white spots.

Bumblebee shrimp [Foster/Smith] will allegedly eat them; so will harlequin shrimp, but the bumblebees will eat other things and survive them---harlequins won't. Note: bumblebees are about the size of a horsefly, but they are surviving in my tank.
 
I'm kind of see-and-watch on them. I rescued the first one from the live rock detritus water, and actually put it into my tank: they've now multiplied, and I'm viewing them with suspicion, especially having had a couple of dings in my digitata, caused by a bubbleshell [no relation to the starfish].
 
I have a few and have never had a noticeable problem. It's probably an issue of the number in the tank. I've only ever noticed 1 or 2 at a time, but I've seen tanks with hundreds of them on the glass. I don't know what would make them overpopulate some tanks and not others, but it seems like anything in that high of numbers is bound to cause problems.
 
I didn't know that about bumblebee shrimp. I may have to try some since I am overrun by asterina. I tried a harlaquin shrimp but it dissapeared after a few weeks.
 
Over in the zooanthid forum people are pretty convinced they eat up zoas. You guys experiencing this?
 
I have a large number in the 80 and 5 gallon and never seen them do any damage. Never even seen them near a zoa actually and my nano has a large zoa population and the 80 has quite a few. I think they are neat and save them from the overflow filter everytime I clean it along with big pods. Never really seen them bother anything but who knows. So far they are ideal.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7643499#post7643499 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EvilMel
Over in the zooanthid forum people are pretty convinced they eat up zoas. You guys experiencing this?
Click to expand...

Never seen that Mel. Any links?
 
That thread is very similar to most. A few people thinking they are harmfull due to circumstantial evidence with a few saying they are not. This Calfo quote from his article pretty much sums it up IMO:
Asterina sea stars have been accused, unfairly at times, for preying on coral tissue. While some individuals appear to eat some desirable reef invertebrates, the problem may be a simple matter of an opportunistic predator adapting to a change in the available, preferred foods (worms, algae).
Click to expand...

Chris:)
 
I find that's true with a lot of the reef inhabitants. I just was a bit leery of them because I didn't have any experience with them.
 
I had no problem with them when there was sufficient algae but when all the algae was gone I am pretty sure mine munched on my sps a little. I would find them out on branches of acropora and the next day it would be dead. Now that I have some algae growing again they are leaving everything alone. I would like to get rid of them though, or at least thin them out some.
 
Thanks for all the comments. I have about a dozen little stars in my 125 gal. tank and, as was said, if I saw a population explosion I may want to thin them out. I have one large rock with green zoanthids which remains about the most successful coral in my tank.
 
I know you are not new Howard but since you only have 5 posts I have to do this:

[welcome]

It just made my finger itchy :lol:

Chris
 
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