Feed tiny starfish to anemones?

[Scoot]

I've got dozens and dozens of tiny starfish - I caught some feeding on my xenia (mowed a path right through the middle).

Rather than just siphon them out with a baster, and toss them (or put them in my fuge) is it safe to feed them to my anemones?

 

[Lance M.]

If I were you I'd toss them and get rid of them asap since they ate some of your xenia, you never know what else they might eat. If you put them in your fuge they would eventually show up in your main tank again. Just get rid of them.

 

[seaham358]

Agree..... if they ate a coral there gone..

 

[produceb]

I agree if the anenome drops a piece they can regrow.

 

[melosu58]

What type star is it?

 

[Scoot]

The fat, tiny, white-ish/grey ones, usually with 5 legs. I've got dozens.

 

[melosu58]

Are they these.

http://www.fantasyreef.com/database/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=1&item_id=15

 

[MT79]

Personally I would just toss the stars rather than feed them to the anemone.
If the stars are eating coral and you want to get rid of them, you may want to look into getting a Harlequin shrimp to control/eliminate the population. The only issue is if there are not enough to maintain the shrimp long term, you'll need to supplement it's diet by adding starfish or returning the shrimp.
HTH and good luck

 

[roka64]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the Harlequin adult eats the Asternia and the little ones eat Linckias. I have no experience with them, this is just something I read when I saw them eating a Linckia at a LFS.

 

[melosu58]

I personally dont think it was the seastars if it is the asternia type. They seem too small to mow down some xenia. I`ve never had a problem with them but I`ve never had some xenia either. JMO

 

[MT79]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the Harlequin adult eats the Asternia and the little ones eat Linckias

AFAIK they all will eat the small asterina's, though I don't have direct experience myself either. I've heard of people using them when asterina's turned bad in SPS tanks. If I remember right, the darker colored asterinas, greyish/black, are more likely to be a problem.

FWIW I came across an article about a seastar that will eat asterina stars.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/gallery.htm

 

[Innovator]

Simply put and in regards to most if not all animals, once their populations have reached such great numbers and resources exhausted, they move onto other things.

 

[Lance M.]

I've got lots of asterinas and literally a xenia forest. The stars dont touch the xenia and I have two types: regular waving hand and pom pom.

 

[Scoot]

They're asterinas, I think. They normally don't bother anythign either, but these xenia's were nearly dead from the SG swing. Maybe that's why they saw it as a lunch.

 

[Phyl]

Harlequins of all ages will eat asterinas as well as other star fish. This is their only food source. Oddly enough they don't eat brittle stars or serpent stars (tankmates), but they do eat choco chip stars (their main diet in my tank) and probably linkias as well. While they will eat asterinas as a snack that is no where near enough, no matter how many you think you have, to fill them up. I have a pair that eat 1 large or two small chocolate chip stars a WEEK!

Please don't get harlequins unless you're willing to feed them other than the asterinas. They'll starve to death before they'd finish off your population and then you'd be back in the same situation with a dead harlequin on your shoulders.