Star shaped stuff?

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I would love to get one of those shrimp for their looks and to eat the starfish, but I don't see myself cutting the leg off a starfish to feed this thing. Is there something else to feed them?

Anyone in the central NJ area want to swap or something
 
I wouldn't worry about the stars. I'm a firm believer in not adding livestock to cure a tanks problems. Find out what the cause is. I have heard that just like Bristol worms this type of star fishs population will explode in the right conditions which is usually due to overfeeding. Now I could be wrong but do some goggling and see if you can find any info pertaining to it. I've never heard of any problems with this star aside from population issues. :)
 
I have witnessed with my own eyes how these things can flip flop. I had thousands of them in that in-wall 150 gallon I was looking after for about 2 years. Model citizens up till one day they decided to eat the zoas. They were all over them and when I pulled them off, there were little bite marks.
I got a harlequin for them and within a couple months, there wasn't an asterina to be seen. then, I had to feed it stars. I hated doing that, and I did it sparingly. So sparingly I must have starved the little guy(one about every 3 weeks). the whole thing was sad really.
 
Thanks Mr X. Sad reality of feeding them larger animals I guess. Here us a pic from this morning so you can see how many I have now.

Snow did not knock my power out, so I going to so I am going to do a large water change today.
 

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It might just be me, as I'm running on little sleep here, but that looks like a mass of cyano to me. That would lead me to believe you might be feeding too much, feeding both the stars and cyano. Cut back feeding, siphon out the cyano. The stars will die off on their own.
 
Just talked to my LFS. He said the tan stars are ok. The Greys will eat your coralline. And he said a harlequin shrimp will eat them..
 
Why is there such a fascination with a nuisance algae that just happens to be red? I would rather have the starfish than the invasive coralline algae.
 
Why is there such a fascination with a nuisance algae that just happens to be red? I would rather have the starfish than the invasive coralline algae.


Couldn't agree more
 
That red stuff is not coming off the rocks without me taking them out and scrubbing them. No problem to me if the stars eat it, but is it coralline or cyano?
 
Coralline is hard crusted I do believe.and not bad at all.. Just could be a nuisance in someone's tank if they don't like it.. . Red slime algae is bad but does whip off very easily
 
If you have to pick at the red.. It's probably coralline
 
It's certainly a matter of opinion, but coralline is a calcium based algae that spreads all over the tank very quickly- on the power heads on the glass, on the rocks...it covers everything in a very short time and uses up valuable calcium, and is very hard to remove. I would call that a nuisance.
Starfish, however, are very interesting creatures.
 
mr_X said:
It's certainly a matter of opinion, but coralline is a calcium based algae that spreads all over the tank very quickly- on the power heads on the glass, on the rocks...it covers everything in a very short time and uses up valuable calcium, and is very hard to remove. I would call that a nuisance.
Starfish, however, are very interesting creatures.

Perfectly said X
 
interesting - I always heard that coralline growth was a sign of a stable/healthy aquarium.

So in the case of a urchins that eats it - there are no problems? My GF wants one.
 
Coralline algae really adds character to the tank when you dont have an abundance of cash to spend on corals to fill your tank. Once you accumulate corals over time it can be a very nice partnership. Yes it uses calcium in your tank but only trace ammounts that are certainly manageable.
 
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