Little starfish on Liverock and everywhere, are they bad?

[NSX22]

I have 2 tanks currently a 58 gallon and a new 55 I set up for my little brother... the 58 has a couple of nice pieces of liverock that I want to put in his tank for him.. the 58 is infested with the little tiny white star fish some have 3 legs others have 6 and there are between 100 and 1000 of them. Is there any way to transfer the rock and get them off so they dont reproduce, or any way to kill them? I think they eat coraline b/c the tank is a year old and has minimal coraline growth and good water quality. I would take a picture of the star fish, but the are to small for my camera (cheap). they are thin and about the size around of an eraser on a pencil. let me know what I can do if anything... I have so many nice corals attached to those big rocks...... thanks

[Savas]

You could do a quick fresh water dip and they would fall off. They do not harm anything and are considered reef safe as far as I know. I have them also and actually like them. They are good detrius eaters.

[Caragol]

You might be able to gather some up and trade/sell them locally as well. I was thinking of purchasing some a while back. Where are you located, is there a local club?

[NSX22]

Well you are in the town near chicago in naperville about 5 hours away.. I got my NSX out there

[papagimp]

Those are called asterina (may wanna look those up just to make sure) but if so, so,me are bad some are good. I have many in all my systems, never had an issue with em, but some will feed on coralline algae, some even on zoo's and simlar inverts. If they aren't messing with anything, I'd just leave em be. Their numbers should die back as they consume the majority of their food source.

[reefmaister]

I agree. I thought they were harmful at first but I havent seen them cause any damage to anything. Their numbers adjust to the nutrient supply in the tank.

[horwitzs]

Get a natural predator? Isn't it the harlequin shrimp that eats starfish? And it's pretty, too.

[Caragol]

I wasn't thinking of asterina... Some are bad, some are OK. I pull them out of my tank when I see them. I was thinking of the white mini brittle stars, which I actually like.