Predator Starfish

SRT80 · 01/12/2007, 01:55 PM

My brother has noticed he has the Predator SPS eating starfish seen here...

http://www.garf.org/news26p2.html

Scroll down til you see "Spontaneous Division...starfish that is a coral predator". I haven't seen them, but he said they look exactly like that and are spreading. He doesn't have any SPS in his tank though. He has stuff like zoas, mushrooms, yellow polyps, green star polyps, xenia, etc. And one huge frogspawn. Everything seems fine but I haven't been able to find any info if they eat any other coral. All his seem fine though. Anyone know a little more on these? When he sees them on the glass should he toss them?

Also, he said he noticed what looks like a baby brittle star about the size of a quarter and only 7 legs. Does anyone know about that...bad or good?

Thanks,
Steve

skeeter-doc · 01/12/2007, 02:31 PM

that is an Asterina sp. sea star. Some are thought to eat corals yes, but most do not, and simply help clean the tank of detritus. I would not worry, espeically if you have no SPS corals

frederickk · 01/13/2007, 09:19 AM

They won't bother anything in the tank they tend to like moving on the glass. Well that's where we see them usually.

01/12/2007, 01:55 PM	#1
SRT80 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Smyrna, TN Posts: 2,090	Predator Starfish My brother has noticed he has the Predator SPS eating starfish seen here... http://www.garf.org/news26p2.html Scroll down til you see "Spontaneous Division...starfish that is a coral predator". I haven't seen them, but he said they look exactly like that and are spreading. He doesn't have any SPS in his tank though. He has stuff like zoas, mushrooms, yellow polyps, green star polyps, xenia, etc. And one huge frogspawn. Everything seems fine but I haven't been able to find any info if they eat any other coral. All his seem fine though. Anyone know a little more on these? When he sees them on the glass should he toss them? Also, he said he noticed what looks like a baby brittle star about the size of a quarter and only 7 legs. Does anyone know about that...bad or good? Thanks, Steve

01/12/2007, 02:31 PM	#2
skeeter-doc Moved On Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: TX Posts: 1,643	that is an Asterina sp. sea star. Some are thought to eat corals yes, but most do not, and simply help clean the tank of detritus. I would not worry, espeically if you have no SPS corals

01/13/2007, 09:19 AM	#3
frederickk Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2,712	They won't bother anything in the tank they tend to like moving on the glass. Well that's where we see them usually.