sps eating starfish

[180gallonreef]

found this on www.garf.org as i was reading about their grunge.


www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html
i have a lot of these starfish in my tank do not know if they have harmed anything though.
anyone have any problems with these guys?

 

[prow]

hummm, i dont know about that. i have those in a couple of my tanks that have been going for years and i never lost any corals in those tanks, ever.

 

[Woodstock]

Strange... I have had asterina starfish for a long time with no ill effects to my sps/lps/softie corals.

Here is a pic of the type that are in my reef..

 

[billyr98]

nice shot doni

 

[Stevenmi]

YES...I have had issues with them.

I have seen them on and kill zoas, pipe organ, and they destroyed!! a 6 inch heart shaped kenya tree (bush I had) by burrowing into the center of the stalk.

I remove softly (as not to drop a regenerateing arm) place them on a table and hit them with a large hammer on my work bench.

I suspect there are many species...and perhaps some are ok..but I have some bad ones..

Steve

 

[brian_e]

i had them in my sps tanks and softies nothing has ever died or looked ill from them and they are still in my tanks to this day

 

[Stevenmi]

Asterina anomala seem to be the biggest offenders...And is what I think I am fighting.

Steve

 

[SueT]

I have had them and have had the ones that will get onto an sps and kill it. I have noticed that if a frag is having a hard time or not doing well that is the ones these starfish go after. They will get right at the base and eat the frag from bottom to top. I have tried to get rid of them by letting them settle on my glass and then running my fish net right up under them and scraping them off like that. I still have them on my rockwork but the ones that get on the glass are mine!!!

 

[boozeman]

would harliquin shrimp rid your tank of them?

 

[SueT]

booze, yes, they would. At the time when I was afraid something bad was going to happen due to all these starfish, I talked with someone at my LFS that I trust. She suggested harlequin shrimp but she said then what are you going to do to feed them. She is who also suggested the net and scraping it up the glass and netting what stars fall off. I syphon the rest off the rocks. There is considerably less of them now than before. Thankfully....