Crazy amount of Starfish

[Joshua1023]

I've got about a gajillion bazillion matillion tiny starfish in my tank. They are really starting to be unsightly. All over the glass and everything else. I moved not too long ago and sort of let things go to pot as my projects for the new house were many. I know I went a little too long w/ no water changes and such, and I figure that is why there is such a bloom of the suckers. I have the water parameters and such back under control again, but the little starfish are everywhere still. Any thoughts on what I can do to limit or eliminate these prolific hitchhikers.

[Purple Haze]

Get a Harlequin shrimp or a pair of them.

However, once they destroy the population, you'll be stuck finding other starfish to feed them.

Or, just live with asterinas

[Joshua1023]

Harlequins huh? You know what I knew they ate starfish, but it never crossed my mind to purchase a set just for this. I think I have enough to last them a while, I wonder how difficult it would be to capture them for a return to the pet store once the Population is destroyed. I wonder how long it would take them to run out of food. I'd hate to have to buy starfish for them every week, that would kinda suck.

[ludnix]

I would just keep up with maintaining your tank, the population will level off eventually as long as you keep their food supply down.

[Joshua1023]

Thanks kinda what I thought, I just want to see if there is anyone out there w/ some experience dealing w/ the same issue and what they did to fix it. Thanks for the input ludnix.

[adamsaranluke]

Where do they come from? Now I kinda want some.

[Joshua1023]

I know exactly where mine came from. I thought the same thing when I saw them clinging to the tank at the lfs. I got some coral from there and voila a trillion starfish. They never seem to be whole. It is as if they pull themselves apart to reproduce intentionally. They are always missing at least an arm, or in many cases half of there body.

[siropa]

I've been battling these suckers for awhile now. I finally have the upperhand. I got a harlequin, but he is outnumbered. So what I did was take a small diameter clear tubing (like 1/4" ID) and I attached it to a 18" piece of dowel. I can use that to direct the siphon to exactly where I want and suck out the starfish. when the 5gal pail gets full, I carefully dump the water back into my sump and siphon again. repeat as long as you see SF. I did this for several months in my 275 a few times a week and I finally have them almost gone.

[Shawn D]

I have quite a few of these but not bad. What do they eat, and are they bad at all or just unsightly?

[siropa]

some are harmless. some eat corals. mine eat coraline algae. they will strip the rocks clean. or at least they did until I started purging them.

[B.C.theReefer]

Those are SPS eating starfish. I just got done getting rid of a few of them in my tank several minutes ago. It looks like you have a real infestation. They do reproduce by splitting . They will eat other things, apparently coralline is one of those things. But they can take a liking to SPS corals. I've read that they are partial to stylophora. I'd get the harlequin shrimp for sure!

[Joshua1023]

Right on. That is what I wanted to hear. I think I'll go ahead and get a harlequin and see if the tank warrants another after a few weeks. I haven't had a problems w/ the starfish eating anything beneficial, just are sort of unsightly. They probably do eat coraline as mine has sort of diminished over the last few months. I just chalked it up to the poor water quality I allowed to happen. Not that I mind a little less coraline algae.

[polywise]

Joshua1023,
just get (1) Harlequin to start -- that way the starfish population wont be totally wiped out, and your investment
(not a cheap purchase), will continue to live. expect to get results in around 4-6 months.

[Shawn D]

Definitely getting a harlequin this weekend

[Joshua1023]

I've actually written them off in the past thinking that I didn't have what it would need to sustain them for any length of time. Now that I am looking at it from this angle, Its sort of an opportunity to try something I've never had before. Does anyone know if this shrimp would be O.K. w/ my Longnose Hawkfish. It is fully grown and Has eaten shrimp its entire life. I made the mistake of buying some anemone shrimp once and they lasted all of 2 minutes, but the skunk cleaners I've had have been in the tank almost two yrs.