Mike nickerson Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 the title says it all. I have heard that they can become a best because they reproduse so quickly but never thought. they start eating my zoas I don't have any pictures. but last week I came home to find 2 starfish on a couple zoa polyps and one polypwas fine but the other one had eaten the skirt and ate the mouth out of the second zoa. so I guess now its a good idea to get rid of them as soon as possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 There are 2 types of asterinas. The darker black-gray ones tend to be the predatory type. There is debate on whether they actually do eat zoas or are just eating the remains. I agree with you Mike though I have seen them on zoas of mine and do think they can be predators. Coralpedia has a picture of them inder zoa pests. Get a Harlequin shrimp (unless you have fish that will eat them) Sent from my BlackBerry 9630 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike nickerson Posted May 27, 2012 Author Share Posted May 27, 2012 yeah I knew there were two different types but I only have the lighter ones and a couple of tanish colored guys. and I have a Harlequin but also have a mystery wrasse so my Harley is in my biocube so I have been taking stars out like crazy and tossing them to my Harlequin (clap) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I used to feed the asterina stars to my hammer/frogspawn or fungia corals... I would pick them off the glass and drop them in the corals and watch them get engulfed. I too had the asterina stars eat zoas... Bad news. :( dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 yep......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 I've been picking all of the asterinas out of my 10 gallon and throwing them in the pest tank. Since I started doing that, my coraline growth has greatly improved. The ones I have are white with red and black speckles on their backs. They haven't eaten any zoas that I've seen. They're definitely coraline eaters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike nickerson Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 I've been feeding them to my harlequin in my bio cube. and since they have reproduced so fast my coraline has basically disappeared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g81 Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 i love ASTERINA STARFISH are they all bad or just the dark ones? ive heard the white ones are ok.. if thats true if somone is throwing theres out ill take them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike nickerson Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 I don't trust any of them anymore. I would give you all mine g81 but I have a harlequin shrimp to feed in my 12g biocube so I throw them in with her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talkalot82 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I have many of thembut they always leave my zoas and polyps alone. They normally eat the coraline algae on my glass.. I have seen them on my polyps but never has any gone missing though mine are whitish tan ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talkalot82 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I find often that what people say isn't reef safe isn't always true or they have different opinion of it. For instance ten years ago they thought the little crabs that live in acroporas were bad and eating the corals only to find they have a sybolic relationiship.. one provides food and the other protects... then there are snails that go after the slime a clam puts off when its injured or ill. I wonder if that's not natures away of getting a dying corpes out of your tank.. some people question bristle worms.. some say they eat corals but others say they clean the tank eating bad stuff and cleaning the sand.. and the list keeps going. Clay on this forum has a mantis shrimp. Huge.. they say the mantis are suppose to break glass tanks and eat everything in the tank. And the matis is suppose to love to eat crabs. His leaves all his fish alone and he has many in there with it.. he had some bad crabs in his other tank that were eating his acropora so he put it in with the mantis and the mantis never went after them. They ended up eating some corals in the other tank sadly.. but we are talking about living creatures. U never know how they will act in a setting. Just like any other person or creature in this world. But any way that's my opion and I guess they say they are like butts.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike nickerson Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 mine eat the coraline and its interesting how much is learned through this hobby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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