asterina anomal - predatory starfish

[suthrnmn]

Ive discovered that I have "some" of this species of starfish in my tank. Does anyone know of a natural predator for it. They seem to feast on the base of my sps. When I see them ofcourse I remove them, but.....
thanks for your input. Ron.

[kmk2307]

Just check the base of the corals nightly and you should have them all gone in no time.

[suthrnmn]

thanks kmk, I plucked 29 last night.....guess Im a natural predator!!

[AIMFish]

I took care of a harlequin shrimp and he mowed thru them. He died before getting them all tho, it only takes 1 to start the whole problem over again. :(

[Sk8r]

Bumblebee shrimp: they eat starfish and urchin legs. Foster/smith. They're the size of a horsefly and fairly hardy...and unlike harlequin shrimp, they're not limited to that diet.

[ophiuroid]

Most seastar experts can not (or won't try to) identify these to species. May I ask how you know you have this species? Was it referenced somewhere that you can link to? I would like to read it.

Are you seeing them eat corals? or seeing them at the base of corals? Are they on all SPS corals, or only some? Are these frags, or established pieces? Is this a new, or established tank? Be sure that you have eliminated other issues, because many animals will be attracted to otherwise dying corals. Are they only at the base of the corals?

I will just say that the OVERWHELMING majority of these Asterina stars are perfectly harmless, and most people with LR have them. Typically they graze on films on hard surfaces...relatively rarely are they predatory, but it can happen. And sometimes, they are thought to be predatory when in fact they were not the cause of problems.

However, they CAN NOT be identified based on number of arms or color or size. In general, species identification is based on microscopic examination of the animal, and primarily by DNA analysis. There is a great deal of hype about these stars, most of it is totally unwarranted..now and then, yes, but I just want to be sure that people don't start a war against all Asterina stars.

[Freed]

I'm still waiting on my thousand or so to kill any piece of coral in my tanks. Just because you see them at the base of a coral or at the line where dead tissue meets live tissue doesn't mean that they are the ones responsible for the recession of the coral. Most often they are only eating the dead/dying tissue or they are eating algae on the base of the coral.