predatory starfish

[adaminaustin]

Backtrack a few weeks.

It started out with my sylophora and pocillopora frags. Both frags had increased in size from the original time of purchase, and were looking good. Then they both bleached. :?

http://garf.org/ search for predatory starfish

I now realize that I have a full on war with these predatory starfish.
Everyday when I get home for work I grab the tweezers and start hunting.

Some days I just see 1 or 2 other days I see 7 or 8. I have looked under colonies, but have not moved the rockwork. I really have no idea how many are my tank.

Today one of my favorite colonies has a little white jagged blotch at its base. :cry:

I am thinking of ordering a Harlequin shrimp online. What do you guys and girls think? Have any of you had problems w/ this before?

[Nano_Steve]

i had a huge outbreak of those things when i had nothing but leathers and lps in my tank so thankfully i did all my hunting before i got sps. i still find one every now and then(maybe 1 every 3 weeks) and i just take it out and flush it. a harlequin would do the trick but you have to ween them over to the small stars. if you want to go that route i would save as many of those stars and put them in a small quarentine tank until you get the harley. when it comes in, once every week just give him one of the small ones from the tank, ive read it takes about 3-4 weeks and about 4-5 stars for them to get the taste and it should begin hunting on its own. the problem is if it runs out of food it will die quickly so unless you are able to tell when it has devoured its food supply in the tank you might end up losing the harley.

hth, steve

[adaminaustin]

Thanks for the help Steve.
Are you saying put the harley in a smaller tank to train it?
Or should I put him in the reef and try to entice him buy putting the evil stars next to its doorstep?

They are instock at liveaquaria.com I will post in the group order forum to see if anyone wants to help me save on shipping.

[Nano_Steve]

yeah put him in the main tank and take a pair of tweezers and feed him the star, he SHOULD grab hold and start munching. if that doesnt work, starve him for a couple of days and try again. i would say no longer than 3 days for the first try and if he doesnt eat the bad ones give him a chocolate chip star and try again the next month.

-steve

how much are they? ive always wanted one but theyre totally expensive!

[wkopplin]

Are those the six legged starfish you are talking about?

[adaminaustin]

Here is a article I found. Looks like not all of them are predatory. http://www.reefs.org/library/article/coral_eating_starfish.html

[BA]

the pics in the article don't work for me..... :x

[Tim Marvin]

I had a harlequin but it would not eat those. It did love the chocolate chip star though.

[BA]

do u think the hsirmp would eat a sand shifting starifhs, granted the hsirmp could ctach him when he came out of the sand to the surface???

[Tim Marvin]

Yes definately.

[Nano_Steve]

harleys will normally eat any star you give them. like tim said, they LOVE chocolate chips that is usually what you will need to feed them with which is a good thing since the chocolate chips are so cheap relatively speaking. these shrimp are fantastic creatures and the most diabolical in my opinion. they will flip the starfish upside down so it cant get away and for the next few days/weeks it will slowly eat its way down each arm, the whole time scouting the tank for food and feeding the star to keep it alive while it is being consumed!!!

-steve

[MikeDeL]

Those shrimp seem like some evil SOBs. "here eat this so I can keep eating your arm" :grin:


Mike

[Jennie]

The pictures aren't working for me either. Is there any way we can get a picture posted here of one of these starfish?

[::pete::]

http://www.garf.org/32/27/STARFISH/tweez201232.jpg

http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish444385.jpg

[Jennie]

how big do those get?

[::pete::]

I think its up to a 1/2".

[::pete::]

Here is one I just plucked from my tank and tossed in the fuge after the pic. I have not seen any bad effects from them at all.

Another Article (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.htm)

[alexwolf]

i have a ton of those, I havent seen any decline in any of my SPS......

[wkopplin]

Inland Aquatics actually SELLS those to people to put in their tanks. They do not warn about them being bad.