Asternia starfish

SVXH6 · #1 10/23/2007, 11:07 PM

i need to get rid of them.. i know obviously manual removal is an option.. i was thinking of getting a Harlequin shrimp.. now if i was to do this method, would i have to feed them or would they hunt them down??i have read a lot of info and says they will eat them..any thoughts??

tmz · #2 10/23/2007, 11:21 PM

That's all they eat.They'll hunt them down but will starve when they are gone.

SVXH6 · #3 10/23/2007, 11:34 PM

i know they solely eat starfish.. i just was not sure if they will hunt them down, as asternia starfish are relatively small.. i have a lot.. i need them gone.. i would be setting up a nano(20G) for them once all the asternia stars are gone and feed them bigger starfish..

fat-tony · #4 10/23/2007, 11:42 PM

they'll definately hunt them down. i've heard of full established reefs having them gone in days

SVXH6 · #5 10/23/2007, 11:46 PM

fat-tony--really?? wow, thats serious!! thats what im talking about!! i hate those asternia stars.. i am really leaning towards the getting the shrimp, but, when i have to feed the big starfish im gonna feel really bad.. the asternia stars have to go though.. and plus the harlequins look sooo sweet!! what impact do you think it would have on the water params of my reef if i kept the shrimp in the tank and just fed them an arm of a starfish(once the asternia stars are gone) once a week??

tmz · #6 10/23/2007, 11:49 PM

I like the look of them. Joe at Salt watr Paradise had an infestation in his show tank about a year ago. The harlequin worked. Can you feed them larger stars or do they only eat asterina? Ronald L. Shimek in" Marine Invertebrates" says sea stars so I guess its a broad diet. He also notes that they eat the legs fist keeping the prey alive as long as possible,so I guess larger feeding larger stars would work.What kind of stars can you feed them later?Just a question for my future reference.

Freed · #7 10/23/2007, 11:49 PM

Why do you hate them?

SVXH6 · #8 10/23/2007, 11:54 PM

you can feed them blue linkia, choc chip stars(many choose these because they are cheap), any fromia sp. sea stars, sand sifter stars..ect.. i have read that many buy a bunch of stars, then once a week chop one of the arms off , then rotating through stars giving them time to regenerate arms and having a "endless supply" how well it works i am not sure..

SVXH6 · #9 10/23/2007, 11:59 PM

ideally, after the asternia stars are gone i would move them(possibly a pair, not sure yet) to a 20G Long, then buy a few chocolate chip stars putting them in a sump with LR, and feeding them, then using arms as needed..

tmz · #10 10/24/2007, 12:04 AM

Well I've seen regeneration first hand. I have an orange linka that went trough the pump. He was a body and part of two short legs. It took months for regeneration. We nicknamed him stumpy. My grandson was amazed that he lived. STill alive and thriving two years later.

fat-tony · #11 10/24/2007, 12:09 AM

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...+and+harlequin

there's a 210 gallon wiped clean of them in 3 months....not too shabby.

RandyO · #12 10/24/2007, 12:15 AM

What's so bad about Asternia Starfish?

fat-tony · #13 10/24/2007, 12:16 AM

I don't have too much issue with them, of course i'm looking at a harlequin at some point so i wouldn't mind them being plentiful.

tmz · #14 10/24/2007, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RandyO
What's so bad about Asternia Starfish?

Hi Randy,
In my opinion not much. However, there are some that prey on corals. Trouble is you don't know who is who. I find them very useful as a cleanup crew in one of my tanks. I have a 35 which started as a fish only with a Bursa Trigger,Valentini Puffer and a very large sddleback clown. Overtime,I've added discoma and some leathers , a few other things and all of the asterina I can catch from my two main display tanks. They do a good job in the 35 where other cleanup types are preyed on.

SVXH6 · #15 10/24/2007, 12:58 AM

well, i had a small sps frag.. i saw a asternia within close proximity and thought nothing of it.. sps looked great.. not two hours later i looked in the tank again and the asternia picked the sps frag clean except for one little tip(very small frag).. there was nothing wrong with the sps, great PE,great color, was encrusting nicely.. it was doing very very well and i am 150% certain this asternia preyed on the coral.. i didnt remove it rite away and just watched it.. a little while later he made his way back to the rest of it and finished it off, then i finished him off.. i now want to rid my tank of them all.. i have not ever had a problem that i noticed with them, but, i have always suspected them of possible things.. now i know.. and they must all be gone..

edit:and oh yea, i have also watched them eat GSP that was growing on my overflow, i never really thought anything about that until now..

SVXH6 · #16 10/24/2007, 01:17 AM

question: i added a "blue sided fairy wrasse" Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura, within the last month.. will he attack and eat the harlequin?? i have not owned a fairy wrasse before and was uncertain of this..

elvn · #17 10/24/2007, 02:52 AM

I used to have a pair of harlequin shrimp yrs ago (lost in a big tank crash unfortunately). They are very beautiful shrimp. Here are some of my feelings about keeping them.

Bioload:
I think it definitely adds some bio-load (funk) with a dismembered arm being in the tank being picked at slowly over time. Having a balance between keeping the shrimp well-fed while not having dead tissue hanging around your tank too long could be tricky.

Cost:
Even the 'cheap' choc chip starfish can add up in cost after while ( $7 to $13 retail each?). For convenience you could, like I did, stock up on starfish and keep them in their own tank or your sump. However I think it would be a lot better if you lived somewhere were you could get really cheap starfish or could capture your own. Another thing to note is that you can freeze starfish or starfish legs and thaw them out to feed the shrimp later. So, you can freeze your own but unfortunately as far as I'm aware there are no 'feeder starfish' products on the market. It would make keeping harlequin shrimp a lot easier and cheaper if there were.

Effort:
Its not that easy to cut off a chocolate chip startfish's arm - large clippers of some sort that allow you to get some torque worked best for me. Other than that, keeping a stock of starfish is another thing to do too, as is feeding the shrimp separately and keeping track of their feeding schedule.

Other notes:

I have some asternia starfish but they don't bother anything. I know there are tales of coral predator types though.
Asternia starfish are more of a snack for the shrimp, you have to feed the shrimp a big piece of starfish regularly.
In my opinion 'rotating' the cut off arms on a population of starfish realistically will not work.

If I were to ever get another pair of harlequin shrimp it would be in a species or otherwise small tank where I could monitor the mess better, and enjoy the shrimp more visibly.

In the wild a pair of harlequin shrimp will cooperate in flipping over a starfish then drag it away to be eaten for days. They will eat each leg one at a time. They have even been observed to feed the starfish's mouth to keep it alive while they eat it !

St.james of reefdom · #18 10/24/2007, 10:02 AM

I had the same problem with asterinas, I went ahead and bought a harlequin shrimp.. The shrimp did a marvelous job at irradicating the stars. It didn't get them all because they are back again. I lost the shrimp because it somehow managed to get into my overflow and despite my many attempts could not get it out of there.
I was taking any asterinas I found and throwing them in the
overflow for awhile. The shrimp eventually passed on...
If I was to do it again I think I would culture the asterinas in my extra 40 long I use to put my mushrooms I remove from my 180. That would provide an ongoing food source for the shrimp..

I had a lubbocks fairy wrasse while I had the shrimp and the wrasse did not pay attention to the shrimp at all.

cardiffgiant · #19 10/24/2007, 11:20 AM

Asternias seem to be a common infestation. You could always keep it until your stars are under control, and then see if someone with the same problem is interested in taking it off of your hands.

fatrip · #20 10/24/2007, 12:22 PM

hey i was wondering if any one has a picture of these stars?

dreaminmel · #21 10/24/2007, 12:42 PM

Garf.org

On the left side they have a section for aquarium pests. In aquarium pests, there are two articles on these starfish.

A couple of years ago I was dealing with these. I had both the sps eaters and the innocent ones. I removed over 70 from my tank with tweezers over a 2 day period. I still have asterina in my tank but they are the innocent ones as far as I can tell. There may still be a nasty one in there somewhere but if so the population is well under control enough so that I see no damage from them anymore.

Gary Majchrzak · #22 10/24/2007, 05:27 PM

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...rlequin+shrimp

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...rlequin+shrimp

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...rlequin+shrimp

Nardoa species seastars will eat Asterina

suppressivefire · #23 10/24/2007, 07:20 PM

they can sometimes if they want do a number on zoas too.

Namyar · #24 10/24/2007, 07:56 PM

I have heard you can just keep a chip star fish and cut a leg of and drop it in the tank to feed the shrimp.

SVXH6 · #25 10/25/2007, 01:05 AM

Gary-- i had a blue linkia that would asternia stars as well.. i have pics but i cant find them.. i think i gave that linkia to Kent.. that same star also lost an arm and regrew it fairly quickly.. i will be looking for Harlequins this weekend..i believe i seen one recently at MO, but i do not think they have it anymore..