Asterina Stars, Good or Bad?!

[higorc]

I have to say, this is a very arguable/debated topic. I would like to know what every one thinks about these tiny little guys!

I know at one point I hated them and thought they were eating my corals, now I know they are good cleanners going after dead and dying things...



What do you have to say?



Higor

 

[PSU4ME]

Just like alcohol, good in moderation, a pain if they are too many.

 

[wdebenedettojr]

Use to be on there side and defended them. Had them in my old tanks with no issues. I had a huge outbreak of them two months ago and they destroyed my tricolor acro colony, almost completely killed my red planet colony, and almost killed my Tierra del Fuego mini colony. I bought a harlequin shrimp and he is slowly controlling the population now. I'll never defend them again lol

 

[Overlook reef]

I think they can get out of control and there are better members of the clean up crew. If I could rid them from my tank, I would. Every two months I clean out a bunch. I find if you leave the tank lights off and keep a light on the front of the tank, they will congregate of the front glass. This makes them easy to thin the herd.

 

[JasonandSarah]

I don't like these guys... Just to many differences in opinions on them and to many reefers saying they can acquire a taste for sps.
I've had them I'm my tank since set up but every time I see one I remove it. Population has never been very high though, I see them in the morning occasionally.

 

[higorc]

Use to be on there side and defended them. Had them in my old tanks with no issues. I had a huge outbreak of them two months ago and they destroyed my tricolor acro colony, almost completely killed my red planet colony, and almost killed my Tierra del Fuego mini colony. I bought a harlequin shrimp and he is slowly controlling the population now. I'll never defend them again lol

Oh man, that really sucks! I've always had it on all my tanks and there were times I could swear they were eating something they weren't suppose to, but lately I haven't seen/noticed them doing something bad. But I know exactly what you mean.

I have noticed they get all over corals that are dying or not doing so good and clean them out. For now I will keep my eye on them just in case they decide to go rogue




Higor

 

[this is me]

When hard corals die, algae grow on the skeleton. A snail is too big to go in between the skeletons and clean up the algae so there's little competition for these Asternia in these areas. That's why you always see them on the skeleton on corals.

I don't see them as an issue. I had a lot of them in my S70 when it was full blown SPS and I didn't feel like they're a threat to any of my corals. But like anything else, infestation is bad. I would get a 1/4" house and suck them out as much as possible.

 

[wpeterson]

I have a handful of these guys in each of our reef tanks. They rarely grow larger than 1cm in my tanks and seems to be harmless eaters of algae off the rockwork. I've never seen them on a coral skeleton, but these tanks have only been running for about 18 months.

All arrived as hitch-hikers on coral frags and live rocks.

 

[BrianOD68]

Good thread Higor. I have hundreds in my reef tank and I haven't seen anything negative with them yet. I feel like they do a good job cleaning the glass of the tank. It all started with just 1 about 6 months ago. I wasn't aware that they can mess with corals.

 

[reefstarter]

as wiuth anything else I leave critters alone that don't seem to be doing harm , more life in tank equals more nutrient export . at least thats my theory , besides when I first started up my tank I was all excited to see a couple of these guys show up in there . same with bristle worms

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I will say they are great cleaners and almost removed all my coraline algae in my tank. Now that my harlequin shrimp is taking them out slowly my coraline is coming back. It's weird I never once had issues with them with my sps then all of a sudden one day they developed a taste for sps and started to devour them. Forgot to add they killed 95% of my Greg hiller blue berry acro also. I have a tiny patch left of it that I have to chase them away from every few days lol.