The Mystery of the Disappearing Stars...

[Picasso]

So, last night, I'm looking at my tank and I notice a couple of start on the side of one of my rocks. I know they weren't there before. These stars looked like someone drew them on with a white piece of chalk. I checked some old photos of the rock and they absolutely weren't there before. Today, I get my camera out to shoot the stars and they're gone. How could someone draw white stars on my rock and remove them before I can get a photo? Weird.

 

[RyanG]

Probably either brittle or asterina starfish that moved

 

[Picasso]

they were the shape of the asterina starfish but they were flat on the rock can they do that?

Catherine

 

[Oscarsdad608]

Asternia stars I guarantee it.

 

[yote]

Yep Catherine,They can be perfectly flat against the rock.

 

[Picasso]

Hey, got a photo of one. where do these come from? I didn't put them there, are they bad?

 

[messiah023]

Asterina.....
Coin Flip.
Some say get rid of them before they overtake the tank, others say leave them alone.
Personally, I take them out. I had 2 or 3 that I left alone.
Next thing I knew, there were 20 or 30 of them.....

 

[Picasso]

I just read on garf.org that I'm supposed to kill these things by ripping them out with a pair of tweezers. I can't do that, is there anything else you can do?

Catherine

 

[RyanG]

You're gonna have to toughen up chick! lol j/k although there will be times when you WILL have to KILL a pest of some sort.

 

[Oscarsdad608]

Put them in your refugium. I think you started one right. Most people think they kill corals and coralline algae. Who really cares if the clean your fuge right.

 

[DanRF]

These are fine, in fact some people even buy them in the UK.

They're great little cleaners and I find them all over my glass in the morning, don't try and sump them, you'll be wasting your time - there are most likely hundreds more that you can't see.

Leave them in and watch them clean I say! :)

 

[Picasso]

EEEEKKKKK, what to do??? Ok, my husband helped me with the removing of the stars, he said "you can pull a tick off the dog but you can't pull a tick out of the tank? If these things are going to kill your corals and your coraline algae, you've got to remove them!" I don't know how I ended up with such a wimpy family but I'm the only one that can pull the ticks off our australian shepherds. I have two stars that I can find so this morning, I pulled one out and put it in the refugium. The thought is, hopefully these two haven't "gotten Biblical" with their relationship and they can both live a long, happy, celabate life in seperate tanks! If they continue to reproduce (asexually?) then I will see if I can weigh their assets against their problems. My tank is so small, I don't have room for something that doesn't multi-task! Thanks for your help!


Catherine

 

[reeffreak]

I have hundreds of them for over several years now.It would be futile to try to remove them in my case.Most are just film algae grazers and I've never seen any eat corals or even crawl on them.

The choice is yours...........

 

[Altohombre]

I don't see any of mine doing anything destructive. Just cleaning rocks and glass.

 

[DanRF]

I'd also just leave them as per my above post, they're fine :) Good little helpers.

 

[dustin_P74]

once you start seeing them it is to late to eradicate them all

 

[yote]

So far,Those lil stars hadnt caused me any problems.There probably a few hundred in the fuge,and a few more hundred in the display.But I have never seen one on any of my corals.