i have a ton of little starfishes. can anyone tell me how to get rid of them thanks in advance
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tiny starfish
- Thread starter golfdaddy73
- Start date
what kind are they?
If they're small and white with irregularly numbered and shaped legs, they're most likely asterina stars. There's really no easy way to get rid of them all. The best you can hope for is to siphon out enough of them on a regular basis to keep them at bay. You can try adding a harlequin shrimp, but then you're in a position of having to buy chocolate chip star fish on semi-monthly basis to keep it fed.
There are varying schools of thought on whether they are bad for your corals and coraline. I have them in all of my tanks and have yet to conclusively see them do any damage. Others seem to have different experiences, though.
There are varying schools of thought on whether they are bad for your corals and coraline. I have them in all of my tanks and have yet to conclusively see them do any damage. Others seem to have different experiences, though.
I don't see them being a problem... until they over run the tank. I have a few of them in mine. I feed them to my RBTA when I start to see more of them. I'm just trying to keep them from over populating the tank.
Haliquin Shrimp. The only problem, from what i hear, is that even with a bunch of them the shrimp could still die of starvation. Like john said you might have to still feed him other star fish every once in a while.
It may be coincidence, but I had an abundance of them in one of my tanks. Shortly after I added a huma trigger to the tank, I didn't see them that often anymore. About a month after I moved the Huma to a larger tank, I noticed I started seeing them more and more. Now I pluck them out and toss them into the bigger tank, and they have yet to appear in numbers in the bigger tank where the Huma Trigger is.
Like I said, might be coincidence, but that's been my experience.
I'm with John, tho, I've never seen them do any harm to anything in the tank, even after years of them being in there. I can see where they might be a problem if they began to overrun the tank like yours tho.
Just my thoughts...
**edit**
Do they look like this:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/EchinodermPIX/Asteroids/asterina_id_wwm_1.jpg
Like I said, might be coincidence, but that's been my experience.
I'm with John, tho, I've never seen them do any harm to anything in the tank, even after years of them being in there. I can see where they might be a problem if they began to overrun the tank like yours tho.
Just my thoughts...
**edit**
Do they look like this:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/EchinodermPIX/Asteroids/asterina_id_wwm_1.jpg
Yup a Huma or Picasso Trigger will take care of them. But not sure if you want that fish in your tank. I guess you can always get them out after they do the job.
With mine I bought him at about an inch, he's about 3 inches now and will eventually land in the 180long when I set that up.
But yeah, to Mike's point, definitely make sure you have the appropriate habitat for whatever animal you decide on. I'm not a fan of purchasing an animal just to take care of a problem. I think with mine it was just coincidence that he did.
Here's an article I found that references these little guys:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php
But yeah, to Mike's point, definitely make sure you have the appropriate habitat for whatever animal you decide on. I'm not a fan of purchasing an animal just to take care of a problem. I think with mine it was just coincidence that he did.
Here's an article I found that references these little guys:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php
i don't think that they are doing any harm to my corals but it is such an eye sore. i started to vacuum it up with powerhead with a hose on the intake and a mesh bag on the other end. thanks all
This is JMO on their supposed coral eating.
I think it's bunk.
Frankly, I've never seen a single hobbyist ever have them munching their coral. I am willing to bet that 99% of these supposed coral losses from these tiny, innocent starfish are because the coral was ALREADY dying. Dying animals tend to be eaten even by things that normally wouldn't eat them.
I think it's bunk.
Frankly, I've never seen a single hobbyist ever have them munching their coral. I am willing to bet that 99% of these supposed coral losses from these tiny, innocent starfish are because the coral was ALREADY dying. Dying animals tend to be eaten even by things that normally wouldn't eat them.
I have had lots of them for three years now never had a problem.The eat algae and Coralline Algae.I had a coral die once 2 years ago and they were all over it.Part of the clean up crew just doing there job.