Chocolate Chip Starfish over eating

Question
QUESTION: I've purchased a chocolate chip starfish 3-4 weeks ago and he seems to be doing great. He moves all over the tank. Yesterday I added a Blue Hippo tang to my aquarium. I put a small piece of dried algae on a veggie clip for the hippo tang. Which he loves. But then this morning I found the cc starfish on top of the algae clip and has been there all mooring.  It that ok for him to be eating the dried algae? And is it possible for him to eat to much? Should I take the veggie clip out and only put in for a few hours a day? I hate to take it away from the hippo tang but he can't really get to it now with the starfish on it.

Thanks for your help,
Tammy

ANSWER: Hi Tammy,
Chocolate Chip Seat Stars,Protoreaster Nodosus, are scavengers. They will eat whatever they come across. Algae, crustaceans, soft corals, bivalves, slow snails, bryozoans, feather dusters, anemones, slow urchins, anything sessile or that moves slowly. They generally dont over eat or gorge. In recent studies it is actually found that the bulk of their diet consists of meiobenthos(diversity of small benthic animals between 0.063 mm und 1 mm) and microbial/microalgal films (Scheibling & Metaxas, 2008). Consequently, it is quite possible that the macroscopic/larger foods these stars generally consume in captivity are at least, in part, just surrogate foods. I would however remove the algae clip from the system rather than leaving it in there all day. Dried algae and seaweed can break down over time in the water and like all other foods, build up in the system and create water quality issues. Live algae and sea weed are a different story. They can be clipped or attached to a piece of rock and not cause issues. Hope this helps.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I did have another saltwater question for you. It is one of my other saltwater tanks. It is a 30 gallon hexagon tank. I'm using a Penguin bio-wheel power filter and a Fluval 304 canister filter. I have a deep sand bed which was Caribsea Live sand. About 30-40 lbs of live rock and I have a do use a powerhead down by the rock to keep the water moving and not cause any dead spots. This tank has been up and running since January of this year. I've not had any problems with it, water looks good and I've had it tested and all readings are normal. They only thing is I'm getting a lot of hair algae on my rock. I even took the rock out a couple months ago and cleaned, then put back in the tank. I do a 10 gallon water change every other week. I use instant ocean and let the water mix for at least 3-4 days before the water change. I have a timer on the tank. The light comes on at 6:30 am and goes off around 9:00 pm. I do have the tank upstairs but I keep the shades pulled so no direct sunlight hits the tank. I have 5 hermit crabs, one sand sifting sea star, 2 small damels, and one small humu humu trigger fish. All are doing great just can't figure out the hair algae. I've had snails but Trigger likes to eat them.

Thanks
tammy

Answer
Hey Tammy,
Hair algae... the BANE of all aquarists. Well, hair algae is a sign of a healthy system, but also a sign of a nutrient rich system or over extended lighting periods. If you arent keeping corals I would reduce the lighting time. You're at almost 15 hours there. I would cut it back to 10 or 8 hours for a while. 12 hours is a good lighting period for mosts systems. Cutting back to to 8 to 10 hours will limit the lighting that the algae needs as well. You can change the time settings for the lighting if you prefer it be on later in the evenings for you. I run mine 10 til 10 personally so I get to enjoy the lit systems longer. You may also want to reduce feedings a bit. Not the number of feedings, but the amount at each feeding. Reduce by about a quarter what you would normally feed. Then clean out as much hair algae as you can... again, and watch your system. You can also add to your clean up crew. My hermits eat the stuff like its a buffet. You can add 5 or 6 more hermits. The Mexican Scarlet hermits(Paguristes Cadenati) I have do the best job on the algae control. Canister Filters arent very well thought of in the hobby. Most aquarists refer to them as nutrient warehouses, but I personally use them. You just have to clean them a bit more often. This will cut down on any food sources returning to the system as well. A simple rinsing with the used aquarium water every water change, and rinsing the media in aquarium water once or twice a week will help. Let me know if this helps or if you have any other questions.