astrea starfish

sarahwoods

sarahwoods

New member
What are you guys thoughts on the astrea starfish? I have heard that they won't hurt anything but I have also heard that they could potentially eat zoas. I was wondering if anyone here has had any issues with them eating their zoas? I have seen about 20 or so in my 210 gal that I counted last night. and I can pick them out when I see them, but I think picking them ALL out might be impossible because I have about 300 pounds of live rock and no matter how many I pick out I feel like there will always be some hiding. Should I bother trying to get rid of them or not really worry about it? I heard that harlequin shrimp will eat them but for me that's not an option because I have a very big hawk fish and a trigger.

Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
I've heard repeatedly that they will eat your zoas, and other coral too, depending on who you ask. I have a few in my 90g, and so will be tagging along to hear what people say! I'd like to get rid of them, but don't want to get a harlequin shrimp (as beautiful as they are!) because I'd really like to keep my starfish... And I'd like at least 1 starfish friendly tank, lol.
 
There are some variations that do attack zoos, but most of the time the ones we find don't. They will actually eat your coraline algae, which that's obviously just an aesthetics decision at that point. If you see any negative zoa reaction, then start plucking them out, otherwise they won't hurt anything.
 
Thanks guys. Yea... that's what I have been thinking... maybe to just keep an eye on them and pluck them out if I see them on my corals. If there is a fish that eats them I would love to buy that fish but all I keep hearing about is that shrimp that eats them and that's just not an option. I think it comes down to pure lazyness of having to pluck them out...but that's a good idea to just watch them and if they are messing with the corals then pluck them out.
 
I think there are some wrasses that eat them, but the only wrasse I know anything about is a harlequin tusk :)
 
Oh how I WISH I could have a Harlequin Tusk in my tank!!! SUCH a beautiful fish and one of my favorites!!!
So many times I have thought about risking it... but I really need my inverts!!! Grrrr.
 
sarahwoods said:
Oh how I WISH I could have a Harlequin Tusk in my tank!!! SUCH a beautiful fish and one of my favorites!!!
So many times I have thought about risking it... but I really need my inverts!!! Grrrr.
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I put baby one in my reef hasent messed with shrimp yet but yet is key word lol
 
I have a bunch in my 72 gallon. I have not seen any effect on any coral, they usually are on the glass eating Coraline.
 
sarahwoods said:
Good to know. Yea I don't really care all that much if they eat Coraline, but if they mess with my coral they are outa there.
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By the time you want it outta there, it will be too late. These thing multiply like termites. I think I had a hitchhiker from Reef wise when I bought a coral from them a while back. Brian's tub is infested with these critters. A year later of battling with them , I gave up and nuke my rocks during a tank downgrade.

They don't harm corals but they make ugly white spots in my nice purple coraline rocks.
 
I ended up with thousands of them i was giving away hundreds a day to people with harlequins. Took 6 months 2 harliquin shrimp and manual removal daily to gwt em out finally rock is purple again.didnt bother my corals at all. They eat coraline but if they run out they can eat zoas ftom what ive heard
 
They eat zoas and coralline they are one of the reasons I'm tearing down my 90 I too got them from rw and know have thousands I hate the little fu@#ers
 
I had hundreds of them in my 180. They were fine until they, alongside the cleanup crew already in the tank, finished off all of the algae in the tank. Then they decided they were still hungry and chose to try munching on my zoos. After about two months and two harlequin shrimp later they are finally gone. Still a few but not enough to do any harm, about 20-30 now and all they do is hide in the rock work or else they get eaten by the harlequins.
 
I have come across them munching on high end zoas so out they went! you can also do the night time trick. Keep your lights off one day, then the next day only turn on a Room light bulb. Watch them all hop on that pane of glass and then start going to town on removing em.
 
In my experience I've observed the pale ones eating film and coraline algae.

The Astreas that look like they've been stained with blue green ink are the ones I've observed eating zoas. They didn't stop there. They moved on and ate my heirloom St. Thomas Mushrooms.

I find one Astrea in my tank of any color or morphology I remove it.
 
I have had Astrenas in my setup for years and their populations seem to wax and wane with time. In my experience they never seem to bother zoanthids unless the individual polyp is unhealthy or dying.
 
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