Asternia stars. now with solutions, and stray voltage

[Nano]

Found this guy munching algae lastnight, wanted to make sure he's the good kind
How can you tell?
Dark on its back

Lightish colored mouth

[rstar]

I have a whole pile of these guys, don't seem to harm anything, they like to roam around the glass and munch algae.

[Nano]

yeah he was munching algae, I just want to find out if hes the good one for sure or the kind that mow down corals

[rstar]

I've never seen any on my corals and have hundreds of them, and have had them for over a year.

[Nano]

Yeah this is the first time I ever saw this little guy. I was going around with a flashlight in the tank last night and boom! micro turbos and asternias! Naturally I was up for like 2 hours looking for info on them all lol. I sure hope this isnt the coral munching kind

[Madreefer]

IMO they're all bad. Here's a little read for ya.

http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

[Nano]

Yeah I have read this one haha. not sure what to do with this one I have him in a cup, will most likely garbage it, but when I do my tank upgrade (37 gallons) is there anything that will keep these little guys under control? I have heard harlequin shrimp will but have to be trained or coaxed to eat them

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by nanomano

I have heard harlequin shrimp will but have to be trained or coaxed to eat them

Sorry but that statement makes me laugh. I see it quite often in regards to people training their fish to eat a certain thing. ie; mandarines and CBB. Seriously people? If something is hungry enough and a certain food is there for the taking than if everything is all good they should eat it. But i'm no fish whisperer or trainer. But I had alot of asterina stars before and IME with my last harlequin they mysteriously went down in quantity when I added him.

[Nano]

Haha yeah I suppose so. Is there anything aside from shrimp to take care of them? I have bad luck with shrimp, I have a minute amout of stray voltage in my tank that I can't pinpoint the source no matter what I do. I actually think it my apartments electrical. So any shrimp usually dies in a few weeks. which is a bummer cause they have character!

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Sorry but that statement makes me laugh. I see it quite often in regards to people training their fish to eat a certain thing. ie; mandarines and CBB. Seriously people? If something is hungry enough and a certain food is there for the taking than if everything is all good they should eat it. But i'm no fish whisperer or trainer. But I had alot of asterina stars before and IME with my last harlequin they mysteriously went down in quantity when I added him.

[gregzz4]

How have you been testing for voltage ?
Shouldn't be that hard to nail down