Baby Starfish explosion???

elysium

Reefing newb
I took over my husband's tank. Pretty much sent it into the mother of all cycles which killed just about everything in the tank. It is embarrassingly ugly right now. I haven't added anything outside water to the tank. I have cleaned most of the rocks.

My husband like to point out every new thing he found in his tank. He never saw a starfish in it, and neither did the boys and I until this week. Now we have at least 6 tiny baby starfish and those are only the ones we could see on the glass.

How is it possible for starfish to just pop up in a tank where nothing has been added in over a year? Could it be stirring up the dsb? They are definately starfish.

So what causes a sudden burst of starfish in the tank? Is it good or bad? (I know the starfish are not good for coral, I'm wondering if the activity of babies means the tank is at some specific point where they tend to multiply.) Anyone know?
 
Hello are they little tiny white or grey 1/4 inch or so starfish or are little long legged starfish.look up asternia starfish and micro brittle stars.to find out what you have.and believe it or not they where there all the time.Happy tanks to ya
 
They are always present in a system. They come in on rock and coral. For the most part they eat algae. In a low nutrient rich tank they do not populated and the numbers are kept in check. You are experiencing a population boom due to the cycling and sudden over abundance of nutrients in the system. As you see them pull them out. They breed very quickly and can take over a system in no time. A few here or there are okay, but as they run out of food they will begin to eat zoas.

I just went through this. I had hundreds of them. I had to buy 2 Harlequin shrimp to eat them all.

Oh, BTW, those are called Asternia Starfish.
 
Definately not micro brittle stars. They look more like Asternia Starfish. They must stay small and stayed on the sand for us never to have seen them before. That and before the tank had lots of things to look at... now it's just rocks, fans, a couple of fish, and algae.

Thanks Fast. I figured there had to be a reason for the sudden bloom of them. I will try to pull them out, but I imagine I'll miss some. All the coral has died. I'll have to check out the Halequin shrimp. He used to have what we called 'cleaner shrimp' in the tank. I'll have to figure out what kind they were too to see if perhaps they were what kept the starfish population in line. That was a very helpful.

Thanks, Lisa
 
Thanks 14. I had just figured that out, but I'm glad you posted it. I didn't realize that was the actual name for the shrimp. :)

Ok, reading another newbies post I just realized those things I'm calling fans are aiptasia. Luckily there are only a few of them... mostly on the rocks I haven't cleaned yet. But given my battle with the grape caulerpa, now starfish and aiptasia I think perhaps I need to figure out how to make this tank less nutrient rich. I don't get it, because the nitrate test is coming back 0.

Is there a test to indicate how nutrient rich your tank is?
 
I found the answer... I think.

<quote>Phosphate is present in the aquarium in two forms: inorganic (orthophosphate) and organic. The latter form is difficult to measure with all but the most advanced phosphate test kits. More frustrating is that it may be absorbed by algae as fast as it is released so even though a test kit measures a low level there may still be significant phosphate present. So it is best for most hobbyists to realize that if they are having problem algae growth, most likely there are phosphate's present.</quote>

Taken from: Saltwater Aquarium Algae Control: The Elimination of Nuisance "Algae"

So from what I can figure I am testing all the nutrients possible to test for a salt water tank. Given that, I must assume the phosphate level of 0 is not accurately testing the organic phosphate levels in my tank.
 
Part of the reason you are seeing the higher nutrients is because in stirring up the sand you have released all the junk that was trapped in there, providing fuel for the algae. Just keep up with the water changes and as you get the sandbed figured out it will help clear up the nutrients and the algae issues.
 
Sens, thanks for that info. My coraline is just starting to come back from the last cycle so it doesn't need anything feasting on it. :)

Daughtery, given I don't have much living in the tank and I'm constantly in it trying to slowly remove a dsb... I think I can just remove them myself for now. :) I wouldn't add any living thing to this tank at this point. Thanks for the concern. It really bothers me letting something I took responsibility for its care...die. Ignorance is a hard teacher. Thanks for the heads up.

Erin :)

Little fish, I was guessing stirring up the bed had something to do with it. Thanks for confirming that. With that being the case I'm thinking it may be 6-9 months before I get this tank fit for anything.

Perhaps this should be a new post, but can I ask:

Given I've been moving the rocks and doing the water changes, do I need to add pods. Bill stocked it with live pods and brine and let them have time (about 3 months I believe) before adding fish and he didn't need to add any afterwards. He never fed the dragonette and she's been in our tank 2-3 years now. She and the 6-line wrasse seem to be doing fine. He got angry with me for feeding his tank and said overfeeding messes up a tank and that a good tank should keep everything in balance and not need feeding. But it seems people do feed their salt water fish usually. How does one determine how much pods to add to a tank?
 
I would not worry about the pods, they will survive this a repopulate. But he is right, too much feeding can cause all sorts of problems, but people do feed their fish. They just dont feed a ton. There are a few systems on this site that only feed their tank once a month or so, but those are few and far between, and they are usually very mature systems. So you might be able to stop feeding in a couple years or so depending on your system.

Also, i think you will get the dsb cleared up sooner than you think and you can start restocking thing. There are lots of corals that thrive in the nutrient heavy waters.
 
Thanks little fish! :) I think he did feed the tank about once or twice a month prior to getting sick. Why else would he have the food? I fed it daily while he was in the hospital the first time. I don't think he wanted me feeding his tank after that. :)

I really appreciate all the help.
 
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