Please identify???
What kind of star fish is this??? Been eating away at my coral
- Thread starter hexcolor reef
- Start date
It was hitchhiking on an elegance coral and ate under a full polyp.
There are asterinas that are corallivores. Thankfully they’re rare in our systems.
Was the coral completely healthy before you saw the asterina on it? I only ask because most asterinas don’t go for healthy coral but they’ll eat dead or dying tissue. I’ve also heard of asterinas (and other CUC members like bristle worms, hermit crabs, etc) eating living coral tissue if there’s not enough food for them.
Was the coral completely healthy before you saw the asterina on it? I only ask because most asterinas don’t go for healthy coral but they’ll eat dead or dying tissue. I’ve also heard of asterinas (and other CUC members like bristle worms, hermit crabs, etc) eating living coral tissue if there’s not enough food for them.
I know some will say asterina are harmless but not me ive seen them go after healthy coral they were on my gmk doing damage once i started pulling them out with tweezers the gmk recovered they dont let a coral thats damage from fragging or whatever other reason recover they go for the kill they say they go after dying coral but how will the coral recover if its eaten ive also seen them irritate mushroom then eat them
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2017
- Messages
- 4,886
- Reaction score
- 5,843
- Review score
- +0 /0 /-0
- Location
- Los Angeles (SFV)
Aquilonastra, 99.9% are completely harmless in our tanks. A group of asterinas were reclassified in 2004, which include the ones that commonly inhabit most reefers tanks.
These are the ones i have
Attachments
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2017
- Messages
- 4,886
- Reaction score
- 5,843
- Review score
- +0 /0 /-0
- Location
- Los Angeles (SFV)
I have a couple that are the size of a quarter, just munching away on algae. One cool observation that I’ve been seeing in my tank is these stars will hover next to berghia eating aiptasia, then go in when the berghia are finished. It’s as if they sense the aiptasia are dying and they are there to help clean up.
I have the ones with the red stripes. I’ve seen them eat some sick zoas over a couple days. The zoas probably could have been saved but the asterinas ate them up anyway. But they mostly left my Rasta zoas alone which were right next to the sick zoas. I will definitely avoid asterinas in the future though.
Every time this pops up half say they are reef safe and the other half talk about how they are coral eaters. I fall in the coral eater side based on my personal experiences with these guys.
I also saw them eating at the bottom of a healthy blasto i removed all the ones i could catch and the blasto recovered how can you discredit someone with first hand experience its like clown fish and tail spot goby i saw a clown fish keep tearing off tentacles from a frogspawn till it died i had a tail spot goby and it kept ripping at the amazeball goni till it died id say all reef safe with caution
Similar threads
