Bifferwine
I am a girl
I've always had tons of asterinas in my tank for as long as I've had my tank. They've never seemed to bother anything, and I've usually only ever seen them on the glass.
For the last week I've been doing a blackout on my tank for dinos. During this time, every shred of algae in my tank has died off -- including the film algae that normally grows on the glass day to day.
Today I checked on my tank, and the asterinas had moved off the glass and were covering my corals. They had obliterated several (expensive) zoa frags that just yesterday looked perfect. They were covering my blastos, several of which had receded due to the blackout already. The asterinas were even on top of my hammers and torch corals.
I'm having a hard time believing that overnight all of these corals just got sick and died and the asterinas were cleaning up after the mess. I've been keeping a very close eye on everything during the blackout, inspecting the tank twice a day. Nothing is out of whack or could explain the sudden deaths of several different corals in different areas of the tank (water quality is fine). The most obvious explanation is that the blackout killed off their normal food source -- algae, and they had to find something else to eat.
I have heard similar stories before about asterinas, that they are fine for a long time, then all of a sudden you'll find them eating healthy corals. I took those stories with a grain of salt, but now it has happened to me too. My zoas and palys are just little nubs now.
I'm ordering a harlequin shrimp today. We'll take care of this problem naturally.
For the last week I've been doing a blackout on my tank for dinos. During this time, every shred of algae in my tank has died off -- including the film algae that normally grows on the glass day to day.
Today I checked on my tank, and the asterinas had moved off the glass and were covering my corals. They had obliterated several (expensive) zoa frags that just yesterday looked perfect. They were covering my blastos, several of which had receded due to the blackout already. The asterinas were even on top of my hammers and torch corals.
I'm having a hard time believing that overnight all of these corals just got sick and died and the asterinas were cleaning up after the mess. I've been keeping a very close eye on everything during the blackout, inspecting the tank twice a day. Nothing is out of whack or could explain the sudden deaths of several different corals in different areas of the tank (water quality is fine). The most obvious explanation is that the blackout killed off their normal food source -- algae, and they had to find something else to eat.
I have heard similar stories before about asterinas, that they are fine for a long time, then all of a sudden you'll find them eating healthy corals. I took those stories with a grain of salt, but now it has happened to me too. My zoas and palys are just little nubs now.
I'm ordering a harlequin shrimp today. We'll take care of this problem naturally.
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