little tiny white starfish ( and life update)
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URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=79389
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Topic: little tiny white starfish ( and life update)
Posted By: bmac2
Subject: little tiny white starfish ( and life update)
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 1:15pm
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realized today I haven't been to a meeting in over a year, and haven't even logged into the forum for over a year. Life has been busy. Daughter and fiancé bought a house in American Fork not far from downtown main street, so I spent MOST of last summer redoing it for them. Then we redid the first floor of our house, moved doors, new floors, new walls, paint, new window/door trim, new molding. Redid kitchen and cabinets, built a bunch of open shelf type cabinets, etc. Turned garage into family room. so for the last 9 months every second when I haven't been at work I been doing construction. Changed jobs twice, Senior Linux Platform Engineer for Digital Guardian now. Our office is at the alpine exit in Lehi. Already put the next meeting on my calendar and hope to start back making them. My question, and I have heard a lot of different things about the tiny white starfish in the tank. They are tiny, but at night I have tons of them on the glass. Someone said they eat zoas and corals, some people say they are good. Should I be popping them off the glass and flushing them at night? Tank is doing fairly good. It got neglected a ton in the last year. My zoas are looking crappy right now and not sure why. Had to put new lights in so nice Radions were put in. I will try to post a couple of pics later today of the tank. Barry ------------- Aquarium Creations 300 gallon tank Stand by Dion |
Replies:
Posted By: 1stupidpunk
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 1:33pm
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They're Asterina stars.... there are a couple subspecies of them, some eat soft corals others do not. I have TONS of them in my tank and I always see them on the glass, never seen them on a coral. If you only notice them on the glass then I wouldn't worry about them. |
Posted By: 1stupidpunk
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 1:47pm
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Heres a good article... http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/45-reefkeeping-101" rel="nofollow - http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/45-reefkeeping-101 - |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 1:48pm
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^^^^^ True story. There seams to be a connection between the color and whether they are eaters or not. Keep in mind that they are a starfish so they will be eating something in the tank if it's not your zoa's it's either algae or coraline. If there are that many then I would begin to get worried (plus you said your zoa's aren't doing too well). I don't mind a few of them in my tank but when numbers start climbing I start pulling them or borrow a Harlequin shrimp from a friend. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 2:10pm
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Hey Barry!!!!! They're good, I'll take them. Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 4:40pm
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Hey Barry, It's good to see you're still in the hobby. I've got some good Utah Sand for you, if you want it.
Only once have I had any problems with Asterina and I've had all kinds of color variations. I just picked them off the coral. I had to be quick about it, before they ran away. They love the algae and bacteria on the glass so more frequent cleaning of the glass pushes them more over to the LR. Aloha, Mark ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Hogie
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 4:49pm
| I don't like them on the glass as they are distracting to me when I'm looking at the tank. So I pick them out by hand of all the tanks and put them in my tank with the harlequin shrimp who then has a little snack. But, I've never had a problem with them on on corals or anything. I did have them take out all the coraline algae off the back wall in my 6 gallon though. It was crazy how fast they burned though that. |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 6:10pm
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Harlequin for the win! Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 7:10pm
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Agreed on the coralline and how fast those little 'bleep' eat it. Otherwise I have never had any issues with them and we have a pretty nice size zoa/paly garden. Honestly I have never even picked them out. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: March 08 2016 at 9:16pm
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Those starfish never bothered my tank, but watch those radions, very easy to bleach everything and piss off zoas fast if they are set too high. ------------- 65g Reef |