What kind of starfish

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G

goodisor

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 19, 2006
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Does anyone know what kind of starfish these are.I can't seem to stop them from reproducing and my tank is covered with them.They all started from about 5 of them that I put in the tank.They're all different colours and they seem to be thriving,not only in the tank but in my sump aswell.

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i was gonna say bat stars too. they are cold water tho.........
 
If they are tiny like the size of your pinky nail and smaller than they are very common in reeftanks. I have them all over the place and so do my friends. They are a good sign that your tank is healthy. Don't worrie about it.
 
If they aren't eating your corals, don't worry about them. You prolly have micro brittles and other stars you never see. in there as well:)
 
Worry-Remove them they eat sps corals
I picked up a few as hitchhikers-I even stated to the owner of the store wow those things are everywhere "what’s up with that"--Oh don’t worry they are good for the sand bed.
At first they are cute--Waking up to a dead coral not cut they sure developed a taste for my sps.
 
H20Boy;487888; said:
Worry-Remove them they eat sps corals
I picked up a few as hitchhikers-I even stated to the owner of the store wow those things are everywhere "what’s up with that"--Oh don’t worry they are good for the sand bed.
At first they are cute--Waking up to a dead coral not cut they sure developed a taste for my sps.
Click to expand...

The stars are an Asternia sp. Definately remove ALL of them. My suggestion is to get a harlequin shrimp. They only eat starfish! The small little bastards start off grazing on live rock and algae, while they reproduce. Then once they are big enough they will tear your tank apart! eating your Sps corals. If you cant afford a harlequin, eradicate them yourself. Just pull out as many as you see every day for at least 1 week!
 
REALLY! I never knew they would do that. I had lots of them but I used to keep mostly soft corals so I never experienced that problem. WOW! thats good to know. ya learn something new everyday.
 
In general they eat SPS (polyps) out of necessity not as a rule. However for those of us that grow sps corals we try to limit the amount of nutrients in the water this controls a lot of nuisance algae; However when you limit the nutrients via underfeeding or a macro algae to suck up the extra nutrients in the display tank the star fish turn to your polyps for nutrition-just a mater of time.

PS. Thanks Elasmofreak for backing me on this, most people dont
 
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