Suggestions for controlling asterina numbers?

[d3rryc]

Hey, there!

I've got a 140-gal reef, and while I love the little asterina starfish, they're putting a serious dent in my coralline in places. Does anyone have suggestions to bring their numbers down a bit (other than long hours with tweezers :bigsmile: )?

Thanks!
Derry

[sly fox]

harlequin shrimp eat them, but then you have to put a star in every week after to feed them..

[SoLiD]

In my nano cube 24, there used to be tons of them everywhere before I added about 100 tiny baby peppermint shrimp. Now they are half eaten all over the floor. I never knew that about them, but the proofs in the puddin.

-David

[Bill S]

The peppermints haven't bothered the stars in my daughter's nano.

I need to get a choc. chip or 2 for bait for my harlequins. I need to move one up to the 55, which is now full of stars.

[marshall.read]

manual extraction is the most reliable way. just designate about 10 minutes a day to search all the rocks for them and pick them out. after a week or so you should have their numbers pretty low. you'll be surprised after a few days how easy they are to spot.

[Bill S]

Marshall: Been there, done that. My assistant EVERY morning would point out the new starfish, and I'd fish them out of the 55. Still, got overwhelming.

[jroescher]

I have the same problem in my 120. Hundreds of them and they have almost completely stripped all the coralline from everything now. There's so many of them that are so small you can barely see them, much less pick them up.

Will harlequin shrimp attack my brittles and serpents also? I have several very large ones that are several years old and really don't want to lose them.

[Bill S]

My tiny brittles have been completely left alone.

[jroescher]

Quote from MarineDepotLive:

Harlequin Shrimp - Hymenocera sp. - Small (Philippines)

Harlequin shrimp are very good choices for ridding your tank of the unevened Asterina stars (Asterina stars are corraline eating starfish with 3 - 5 uneven legs).

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/ps_ViewItem~idproduct~ML0646914-01.html

[reeferRob]

I had 1000's in my 180, I just started vac'ing them out every morning just as the lights come on, now I rarely see any, it took a whhile and a lot of siphoning but I would guess there to be MAYBE 25 or 30 in there now!


Rob

[d3rryc]

SoLiD, by peppermint shrimp, did you mean Lysmata wurdemanni? And where on earth did you get 100 of them?!?!

[SoLiD]

SoLiD, by peppermint shrimp, did you mean Lysmata wurdemanni? And where on earth did you get 100 of them?!?!

I caught about 600 over 2 weekends in Port Aransas. In there was a bunch of half inch babies. The small ones were put into the Nano Cube 24 and the big ones were put into the 100g QT. Aggie4231 (Justin) has informed me that these are Lysmata wurdemanni and not Lysmata rathbunae or Lysmata californica wich come from cooler waters :).

-David