marcah
Reef enthusiast
new one to me.. wasnt there a couple days ago..
a little help?
- Thread starter marcah
- Start date
chiqui bb
Reefing newb
Looks like an asterina starfish. Not harmful but will eat the coralline algae off your rocks. And they will multiply! I have some in my 90 gal and when I see alot of them, I pick them off the rock with tweezers.
marcah
Reef enthusiast
after I saw that I went looking and couldn't find anyother.. maybe I will just get it out now .. thanks
Smitty
Reef pro
+1 chiqui
SeaBee
Ha Ha Thats Funny!
They eat the flesh of coral too, so get as many out as you can. Or get a harlequin shrimp! I love mine.
Piggy
Reef enthusiast
I need to find me one of them shrimps. Them stars started going after my corals. It's getting to be a pain picking them out every day.
little_fish
Moderator
Just be able to rehome them after they have taken care of the star fish infestation because they only only only eat starfish. Or you could buy a starfish and keep it in the sump or something and cut off a chunk of leg every few days.
PRC
Stop Quoting Me!
I'm still sceptacle about this....I know we've had this discussion alot of times before.
I do concede that they will eat corraline, although I've never personally seen it. (and I have a ton of these things in my tank) But I've seen more than one person say that they eat Coralline. So I'll concede that point.
As far as eating coral flesh, I've never seen that either, and I've got plenty of coral and plenty of asterinas, you'd think at some point the 2 would meet.
I still think these little stars, (while certainly a pest)...are getting a bad rap for things they're not actually doing.
I do concede that they will eat corraline, although I've never personally seen it. (and I have a ton of these things in my tank) But I've seen more than one person say that they eat Coralline. So I'll concede that point.
As far as eating coral flesh, I've never seen that either, and I've got plenty of coral and plenty of asterinas, you'd think at some point the 2 would meet.
I still think these little stars, (while certainly a pest)...are getting a bad rap for things they're not actually doing.
sen5241b
Reef enthusiast
I pick them out with tweezers. The first week it was a lot of work but now I find maybe one a month. NEVER wait --pick them out the moment you see them. They tend to come out at night.
chiqui bb
Reefing newb
I have seen them eat coralline. They tend to move slowly and stay in one general area so it's evident when they have eaten some. In my tank, I will see one on a rock and all around it, there will be small white areas on the coralline. At times, the white area will turn pinkish. Not sure why on that but I think it has something to do with the actinic lights. Never noticed them eating anything else. Aside from fish and inverts, I have mushrooms, zoas and a coco worm. I've never even see the asterinas even near them. I don't think they are terribly harmful, especially if you have alot of coralline. Everybody needs to eat, right?!
