little mutant seastars

[acasden]

I have hundreds of these little white/beige seastars with pieces missing all over the glass and rock, I think they eat the coraline algae on the rock- how do you get rid of these things????

 

[Entacmaea]

Hey there, there are a couple species of small sea stars we usually find in our tanks. Many are harmless, the one below is predatory:

http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

Easiest thing to do is manual removal I would guess. You could get a harlequin shrimp, which feeds on their tube feet, but then it will just die when it runs out of food.

 

[acasden]

no way to remove by hand , just too many, maybe will try the harlequin shrimp, I do think these things are eating coraline, maybe some polyps but there a lots.

 

[Entacmaea]

If you have hundreds, in order to make a dent you will be happy with- you might have to get multiple shrimp, which will ultimately die. You can remove the stars manually, and I would strongly advise trying that before getting shrimp...

 

[Anonymous]

I have tons of these guys in my tank, but they can be different type from the horror as described in GARF. Mine is slightly lighter in color, and so far, none of my corals was ever hurt by them in past eight years. YMMV, as always.

 

[Anonymous]

Search for Asterina images. They're harmless.

 

[FinalPhaze987]

I would leave them if theyre asterinas...If you try adding some harlequin shrimp it can affect your water quality since they only feed on the "feet" of the stars. the rest is left to rot unless they recover and live on...

 

[yellowfiji]

I have plenty of these tiny starfish that have five legs. I am not sure what they are, but they seem to be harmless.

 

[Anonymous]

Search for Asterina images. They're harmless.

+1

 

[peel]

i had them in a 10 gal and they took out my toadstool a few hours after i put it in

i manually pick them out of the 30, usually about 10-15 a week but i haven't added another leather coral