Bumblebee Shrimp as Asterina Control?

[Kizmar]

I've noticed Asterinas in my tank since the cycling stage (about 4 months). As expected, I've started seeing more and more. They haven't been a problem until recently.

At this point my CUC is keeping algae under control (almost too well). I've actually removed the long spine urchin and the hermit because there wasn't enough food for all of the algae-eating animals, and they were the easiest to get out. Now that the algae eating animals are fighting for food; I've caught Asterinas consuming coral polyps a couple different times.

Aside from picking them out when I can get to them, I was told by my LFS that Bumblebee Shrimp will eat Asterinas, and LiveAquaria says they can be fed Mysis Shrimp once the Asterina numbers are way down.

There's also Harlequin Shrimp. I love the look of Harlequin Shrimp, but don't want to be stuck having to feed them Chocolate Chip Starfish to keep them alive (not to mention that it seems cruel to the starfish /hippy).

Anyway... wanted to see if anyone else else has approached this subject with either of these shrimp and see how it panned out.

Side note: I have two Blood Red Shrimp currently, would there be fighting between species if I were to get a pair of Bumblebee's?

 

[yote]

We use the Harlequin shrimp at the LFS.But that's about the only way you can control asterina's in 1155 gallons worth of reef and frag tanks.And that includes a 125,a 480 and 400,and a 50 gallon,all fully stocked reefs.

 

[Kizmar]

We use the Harlequin shrimp at the LFS.But that's about the only way you can control asterina's in 1155 gallons worth of reef and frag tanks.And that includes a 125,a 480 and 400,and a 50 gallon,all fully stocked reefs.

Do you move them from tank to tank, or do you have one in a 125 gallon that's sustained by the asterinas?

 

[yote]

We actually have a pair in each tank.But we also get a lot of asterinas that come in from trades on corals and frags.Plus we do order corals at least once a month and the little stars will come in on those too.
Not everybody tries to control em,so we do what we can in the store.

 

[NanoReefer]

i have tons of asterinas in my tank, the ones that eat zoas have patches of orange?red on their backs. the ones that don't have color i have never seen them on the zoanthids.

 

[Bifferwine]

In my experience, they will start off harmless -- eating film algae off of glass and rocks. But when algae gets scarce, they will turn to eating corals. I've seen asterinas devour leathers and zoas in particular.

 

[Kizmar]

In my experience, they will start off harmless -- eating film algae off of glass and rocks. But when algae gets scarce, they will turn to eating corals. I've seen asterinas devour leathers and zoas in particular.

That's exactly what I'm seeing. All the asterina's in my tank are off-white or white. So far I've caught them on a Zoanthid and a Jasmine Polyp.