weird starfish

[clownlover]

Found this starfish on the glas its about a half inch. i thought maybe its arms got eaten but ive now seen a couple more in the tank just like it. what is this thing and is this it good or bad to have?

 

[rookie07]

It looks like a asterina(?) star...which is bad...I would capture and isolate until you get a post ID....The eat certain corals...

IM NOT SURE ABOUT THIS...but seeing as its late, and you might not get a response for hours, I thought I would jump in and offer an opinion

 

[masterswimmer]

Perfectly fine. They are asterinas. Leave them be. If you don't like them for some reason, put them in your fuge. Either way they are good. Signs of a healthy, maturing tank.

swimmer

 

[cybermeez]

Perfectly fine. They are asterinas. Leave them be. If you don't like them for some reason, put them in your fuge. Either way they are good. Signs of a healthy, maturing tank.

swimmer

Ditto.

 

[sweetsop]

I have plenty of these starfish, I believe they are starting to eat my zoas! I just got a cool harlequin shrimp to eat these guys up!:sgrin:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I had them in my 55. One or 2 turned into about a hundred or so in a few weeks. The multiply exponentially and in my opinion irritated my corals and caused some of them to stress out and die. I bought a harley to eat them up too.

 

[clownlover]

hmm. haven seen them eat any corals but i cant take the risk/ some reading i found:

http://www.garf.org/news26p2.html#STAR

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

 

[DevIouS]

hmm. haven seen them eat any corals but i cant take the risk/ some reading i found:

http://www.garf.org/news26p2.html#STAR

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

You would have found the same info right here on MR:

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-beginners/37558-what-thing.html


http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/39498-stars-my-nemesis.html

 

[DevIouS]

In case you didn't notice....I'm Anti Asterina:shhh:

 

[clownlover]

yes u def. are but u have ur reasons. the wet web media people r almost sure they r safe though. seems to be a big divide on this one.

 

[DevIouS]

There are definitely different species. I never deny that.
There are visible coloration marks that distinguish them. The more colorful ones are the ones I noticed munching on corals.
As mentioned above....even the supposedly reef safe ones can get to annoying #'s & they do hang out & walk on corals. Not enough to harm them, but enough to irritate.

 

[KathyC]

There are definitely different species. I never deny that.
There are visible coloration marks that distinguish them. The more colorful ones are the ones I noticed munching on corals.
As mentioned above....even the supposedly reef safe ones can get to annoying #'s & they do hang out & walk on corals. Not enough to harm them, but enough to irritate.

I totally agree with Devious on this.
If it looks like it has any coloration..bluish, greenish...you'd be best served to remove it from your tank asa as those do eat corals and my tank is living proof of that. Id it's your standard sized slightly off white asterina, you may be just fine as far as munching is concerned, but as Devious pointed out they still do irritate corals when they walk across them!
I'm more than happy to let my bristleworms & CUC nosh on detritus, rather than chance the asterinas at this point.

 

[clownlover]

agreed