YBeNormal February 24, 2008 Share February 24, 2008 There has been a lot of discussion on the board recently about Asterina stars and whether they eat coral or not. I have the white ones in my tank and have never seen them eat anything but algae so I am not overly concerned by them. They have multiplied though and I now have more of them crawling around on the glass than I would like so I began picking them out one by one when they were in a convenient area and easy to reach. Given the number of them in the tank though, I quickly realized that I was hardly making dent in the overall population. I noticed that Asterinas will quickly fall to the bottom when they are dislodged from the glass. This got me to thinking... I was bored, had some free time and have a lot of scrap acrylic pieces in my garage so I set out to make an Asterina scoop. This was a prototype to see if my idea would work so I focused on design rather than looks. I used a strip of 1/8" acrylic that was about 3.5" wide and 16" long. I used a grinder to bevel the end and create a sharp edge. I then heated the acrylic and bent it around a piece of metal pipe, glued some flat acrylic to the open ends using Weld-on #16, cut some notches in the end of the scoop to allow for drainage, then trimmed the excess acrylic from the sides using a bandsaw. I also trimmed a little from each side of the "handle" to make it easier to hold. This was a 15-minute job and the results were rather crude looking, but it would be good enough to see if the idea would work or not. Here are pics of the finished project. Test results: I did a quick test and pulled a dozen or so stars out of the tank with no effort at all. One or two small ones blew away rather than falling into the scoop but the rest fell straight to the bottom of the scoop and remained there throughout the operation. A quick rinse with fresh water and these went straight down the drain. Success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 24, 2008 Share February 24, 2008 Get your design patented before someone steals it... I'm sure if it was marketed people would buy it. What I need is something to get them off the rocks - I don't see them much on the glass but the things are everywhere. When I take them off I put them in the fuge... is there something that will eat them rather than people just killing and tossing them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal February 24, 2008 Author Share February 24, 2008 Nah, we'll consider this to be a public domain design. I'm not sure about getting them off the rocks other than by hand. Do they crawl up the glass after the lights go out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtC February 24, 2008 Share February 24, 2008 Get your design patented before someone steals it... I'm sure if it was marketed people would buy it. What I need is something to get them off the rocks - I don't see them much on the glass but the things are everywhere. When I take them off I put them in the fuge... is there something that will eat them rather than people just killing and tossing them? Did you ever try eating them? Harlequin shrimp would eat them, and then starve when they ran out of food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal February 25, 2008 Author Share February 25, 2008 . . .and then starve when they ran out of food. And there's the rub. I don't want to replace a harmless but overpopulated starfish population with a cool looking shrimp that will either starve or require me to buy and kill starfish to keep it alive. I'm going with low maintenance here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee February 25, 2008 Share February 25, 2008 What a handyman! What can't you do? lol Tee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco February 25, 2008 Share February 25, 2008 now make it attach to your magfloat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal February 25, 2008 Author Share February 25, 2008 now make it attach to your magfloat... I'd rather find a way to attach it to my son or daughter and have the process fully automated. Did I mention I wanted to go low maintenance? It's an ugly contraption but actually works better than I expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak February 26, 2008 Share February 26, 2008 Bribe em to work on your tank ... heh. Nice bit of handy work there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal February 26, 2008 Author Share February 26, 2008 Thanks Jason. I have to admit that I thought of you while I was making it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller February 26, 2008 Share February 26, 2008 Thanks Jason. I have to admit that I thought of you while I was making it. Would you think of him again while you're making me one of those? I hear feeding ROD's food really helps them multiply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogurnda February 26, 2008 Share February 26, 2008 Great idea! It could also be dual use, but remember to rinse it thoroughly after cleaning the cat box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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