Starfish and the Nano

[czukowski]

My wife noticed today that from observing from the front of the tank she could count at least 32 starfish. Mostly are very small, but two of them are Quarter size to thumb size.

I suspect these will become a problem in the future. What are the possible solutions? Physical removal, and if so do you just flush them (seems kinda mean)???????

-Chris

 

[skipm]

If you are talking about pretty plain looking off white stars they are probably asterina stars, as long as they stay on the glass they are harmless and will not populate more than there is algae on the glass to support. There is a variety of asterinas that eat corals so if you find them on your corals and zoanthids then you will want to remove them and manual removal is the easiest way to handle things. I have been told that they make great food for harlequin shrimp but don't think that getting one is a good thing to do just to control these guys.

 

[czukowski]

Here's a cell phone pic, I'll try to get a macro pic if this doesn't help: