matt the fiddler Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 soo. is this one of them evil stars.. kinda looks like everything that i have heard warnings about.. but is the 1st one i have seen. Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 a fuzzier, but better shape defining pic Link to comment
caja Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 What you have there is an asterina starfish. They will eat coralline algae, acros and some soft corals, and they multiply rapidly. Toss him. Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 thought so. darn.. and i got so excited if he were good.. i would be tempted to cut him up to make more... thanks for the quick reply.. i am gona keep him in an isolated fuge till he dies... they are still neat to look at- though they are slow as a sloth Link to comment
Masoch Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Most of these guys do not eat coral. If you find them on coral, they are probably eating algae growing off the exposed skeleton or eating the decaying flesh. Now ... if you see a star on living tissue ... and, after he moves, it appears eaten, then you have one of the rare bad ones. Mostly, these guys are decent grazers and algae eaters. For more info, check here . Keep in mind that there probably isn't a variety that eats both SPS and grazes algae; your guy seems to be happily grazing on your substrate. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 I'm taking masoch's view on this one. I have had all kinds of mini stars, micro stars etc. several varieties that resemble the one in the pic and they have never once touched a coral. Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 well, lets put it this way.. there was a big white spot on the live rock strangely exactly his size... where where was... got a 2 lb fuji expansion piece 4 days ago. originally covered in solid purple.. now it could be he sat there for 2 weeks and killed the algae by blocking light.. but. when these guys eat coralline... do they chip it - or suck the microbes out of the skeleton? i can post a pic of the eaten part when i get home tongiht.... as to the defendant. he is being held in a isolated jar till a verdict is decided- or he starves.. Link to comment
Masoch Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 but. when these guys eat coralline... do they chip it - or suck the microbes out of the skeleton? I think we're talking about different things. When I and the others in this thread talk about coral, we're talking about animals -- specifically, SPS coral in this case. When we talk about algae, we're talking about, well, plants. Only animals have skeletons; plants don't. LR isn't "living" per se, but it includes boat loads of bacteria, "bugs", algae and worms that make it "live". It doesn't have a "skeleton". These stars are algae grazers; they won't touch the other stuff on the rock. FWIW, LR is really just fossilized coralline algae covering shells and abandoned worm tubes. Now ... Crakeur and I both said asterinid stars eat algae. And, yup, they probably graze on coralline algae, the pretty purple stuff. Animals that graze coralline in the short term decimate it. Long term, they spread it around in their poop. It's impossible to get rid of coralline once it's established. I spend many minutes each week get that crap off my glass. Damn rock boring urchin eats a ton of coralline every day ... and spreads it all over the damn place. Animals grazing coralline = animals spreading it. And, for god's sake, let the star go. You have no evidence he's eating coral, and decent evidence he's eating algae. Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 thnks for the replys... hmm.. yea- i have been told by numerous people to avoid coralline algae eaters... mabye i misunderstood what they were saying. you have some good points... and have heard numerous complaints of people who have the genocide happen with starfish that multiply like mad.. ... though never seen pics of the type.. and as to algae...they do form a "skeleton." i have been a diver for years.. and all the research guys i have worked with/ been around call it "the algae skeleton" the coral skeleton, etc. definatly probably incorrect. oh well.. i should have better phrased that. it appeared to remove the living tissue off the calcium depostis on the liverock... yea. like always, you hear a different story from everyone.... especially if you ask your lfs.. lol in this case both sides are quite extreme from each other.. trying to sort it all out... [ and to me the most interesting part of a SW tank is the tiny inverts] Link to comment
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