Asterina starfish can be the bane of many fish keepers lives as they are difficult to get rid of once they end up getting into your tank and many people end up reaching out and asking for advice on getting rid of asterina starfish in their tank.
Over the last month or so, there has been a large increase in the number of people reaching out and asking questions about the various asterina starfish predators on the market.
Although you are able to manually remove asterina starfish from your aquarium, it is difficult and the process is often too slow to remove them all before they can reproduce.
This is why so many people just choose to add asterina starfish predators to their tank as it can be a quick, easy, cheap, and passive way to deal with the asterina starfish in your tank.
The problem is that many of the obvious fish species that people often think will eat asterina starfish actually don’t.
Due to so many people adding a new tank mate in the hope of it eating the asterina starfish in their tank only to find out it is useless, we have decided to publish this article on the topic.
Asterina Starfish Predators
We have our list of asterina starfish predators below that you are able to choose for your:-
- Harlequin Shrimp
- Bumblebee Shrimp
- Blue Linckia Stars
- Bongo Shrimp
- Red Thorny Starfish
Harlequin Shrimp
The harlequin shrimp is easily the best asterina starfish predator by far.
They will eat huge amounts of asterina starfish with ease in a short period of time and a pair of harlequin shrimp can usually clear a tank of asterina starfish within a month.
The best thing about harlequin shrimp is their unique look often causes them to be a talking point of your aquarium for visitors to your home.
Many of the tank mates we add to our tank have a bland, boring look to them helping score the harlequin shrimp points over the alternatives covered below.
The downside of harlequin shrimp is that they can be difficult to find in local fish stores and even if you do find them, they are often expensive.
This is why we would recommend that you try to order your harlequin shrimp online if you do choose them as your asterina starfish predator of choice for your tank.
Bumblebee Shrimp
The bumblebee shrimp is another great option when it comes to asterina starfish predators.
They have a similar look to the harlequin shrimp but are not as effective at eating asterina starfish.
This is why we would only recommend the bumblebee shrimp if you are unable to find harlequin shrimp or if you have a very small problem with asterina starfish in your tank.
Just like the harlequin shrimp covered above, the bumblebee shrimp has a unique look to it that makes it a very popular option for a large number of people within the hobby.
In addition to that, bumblebee shrimp tend to be easy to care for too helping offer a trade off for the lower number of asterina starfish they will eat.
Blue Linckia Stars
The blue linckia star is another great option when it comes to asterina starfish predators.
They have a great track record when it comes to eating asterina starfish and they are very easy to care for.
The blue linckia star is often seen as one of the best options for those that are new to the hobby as they are so easy to care for.
The only downside of blue linckia stars is that they have a very bland look to them which can often make them quite boring to look at in your tank.
Depending on where the asterina starfish congrigate in your tank, the bllue linckia stars may not be the best option too as they tend to only cover the lower levels of your tank.
Bongo Shrimp
The bongo shrimp is another great option when it comes to asterina starfish predators.
bongo shrimp tend to only eat asterina starfish if there is not many alternative food options available in the tank they are in.
Still, many people do choose bongo shrimp to eat the asterina starfish as they will eat them and bongo shrimp are often cheaper and easier to find than the other options covered in this article.
In our opinion though, you really should be going with harlequin shrimp or bumblebee shrimp due to them eating far more asterina starfish in your tank than bongo shrimp.
Due to how quickly asterina starfish can reproduce in most tank setups, you really do need something that will eat the asterina starfish quickly or they may just out reproduce the asterina starfish predator that is eating them.
Red Thorny Starfish
The red thorny starfish is a very popular option when it comes to asterina starfish predators but they are not as effective at eating asterina starfish as other options.
This is because the red thorny starfish only really eat dead or dying asterina starfish.
While this can help reduce the number of asterina starfish in your tank, it is not going to be as effective as something that will eat the asterina starfish when they are alive.
One of the main reasons people choose red thorny starfish is because of how interesting they look rather than their practical application as a asterina starfish predator.
