Tiny white starfish eating coraline algae?

[stryker]

So I have never been able to maintain great coraline algae growth in my tanks. Even nice coraline encrusted purple live rock peices that are placed in my tank seem to fade away slowly. They get these bleached out spots all over them and look very blotchy although there is healthy coraline in other places.

I never really worried about it and attributed it to too much light. But the other day I placed a cool looking peice of plating coraline algae into my display to see if i can get this species of coraline to grow in my tank. I placed it in a shaded area away from my halides. The next day i noticed a couple of those tiny white starfish (you know the ones that came with your live rock and multiply like crazy) on the coraline algae peice. I checked back a few hours later and noticed that there were some bleached spots on the coraline about the size of the starfish.

Could these little starfish be eating the coraline algae? I check my nano at work - that has faded coraline problem as well, and noticed an insane amount of these starfish on the rocks.

Anybody notice the same problem? Does anybody have great coraline growth with an infestation of these starfish? Is there anything that eats these pests? I remember hearing that harliquin shrimps eat them but I'm not sure.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Iammatt219]

i don't know if those are asterid starfish but i think that harlequin shrimp will eat almost any starfish

 

[theevoys]

Here is a link to a thread where Dr. Ron Shmek (before he left RC) said that some of these starfish do eat coraline. There were other threads to saying they eat coraline as well.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=560016&highlight=asterina+coraline

 

[Paintbug]

i have tons of asterina starfish in my tank. i havent noticed a dent in my coralline growth. generally coralline is dependent on your water chemistry. check your calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels. these all play a part in coralline growth.

 

[D to the P]

Not all asterina starfish are coral/coraline eaters. Unfortunately it is hard to control which ones you get on a piece of live rock. It does sound like they are asterina starfish, and they are a great food for harlequin shrimp, which in turn is a great food for many other invertebrates and some fish so be careful if you do get one. Another down side to these starfish is that they reproduce by fission, which is why it is not uncommon to see some with missing legs, and that leads to many unwanted pests in the tank.

 

[Anemone]

I've found that these stars don't actualy eat coralline - what they do is consume the surface film on top of the coralline, and this causes the coralline to bleach in that spot.

So, what's the difference? If you've ever seen what an urchin does to coralline, you'd realize that "eating" the coralline is much more damaging. Plus, the bleaching done by the stars is generally short-lived and repaired within a few days.

If you are having trouble with coralline, you might try B-Ionic ( a two part alkalinity/calcium supplement). WHen I first started out, I couldn't get coralline to grow, and I tried all sorts of calcium-building additives. I even tried C-Balance (another two-part additive), without success. I tried B-Ionic and had coralline growing in spots throughout the tank within a month. Once the tank got pretty well coated with coralline, I stopped the B-Ionic additions, but the coralline still thrives. Sometimes it just needs a jumpstart or a chemical balance adjustment to get going...

Kevin

 

[impur]

I have these stars and they certainly eat the coralline. The 2 sides of my tank are completely covered by coraline, you cannot see into the tank from the sides whatsoever. I knew i had these stars in my fuge, then one day noticed a 3-legged one on the wall. After that day i noticed new ones each week. The coralline on the sides of my tank now have lots and lots of small clear spots. The stars ate it off the glass. Plus side is i don't have to scrape it now.

 

[stryker]

cool, thanks for all the input. i just picked up a harliquin shrimp. I'll give you an update of how it works out. picking them off the rocks manually sounds impossible.

 

[REEFKEEPA]

Good luck.
My tank was plagued with them but the corraline thrived.
They get to be overwhelming after a few years without control.
Keep us posted on the predatory Harlequin shrimp!

 

[stryker]

UPDATE:
Got a large harliquin shrimp for the nano at work and he started devouring the starfishies. Coraline has come back nicely and the rocks are covered with coraline now. I will move him into a bigge tank once all the starfish are gone, so he won't starve. Just wanted to let you all know how it turned out.

 

[johns]

Will a harlequin shrimp try to each serpent stars or black brittle stars as well? I'd like to possibly use one to get rid of these asterinas but need to know if I have to move the serpent and brittle out.

 

[stryker]

he didn't touch the tiny black brittle stars in my tank. i dont' have a serpant star but i doubt he will do anything to it. I heard they will eat chocolate chips stars though. hope that helps.