View Full Version : white star fish
Sir Edward
12/16/2008, 03:43 PM
Hi, my tank has been up running for 3 yrs, though I continue to add corals. Yesterday I found a very small white star fish (it looked like a star fish) on on of the rocks. I have never added any kind of star fish, so this is confussing to me. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Thanks
jadams7
12/16/2008, 04:24 PM
I have also seen them in my tank, just figured it was a type of brittle star or something, seeing as i have tons of those in my tank. never seen any negative effects of them however, but if anyone knows more about them, please let us know!
Without pictures, it's hard to say what you've got, but my money's on asterina starfish. Search for those and see if they match.
m2434
12/16/2008, 08:33 PM
Pic would help, but most likely a harmless asterina starfish.
gradth
12/16/2008, 08:38 PM
I have a few of them in my refugium. i was told they are not a problem.
Rae C.
12/16/2008, 08:48 PM
They just appear suddenly, like all the conditions just happened to be right in the tank. I've heard of them popping up after several years of a stable tank. I have several in my own tank. They've never bothered anything, and the kids really like to look for them.
LiveRound69
12/16/2008, 09:09 PM
they are more than likely the asterina starfish. which like the brittle starfish , can reproduce by breaking off a piece of their midsection with an arm attached. the arm then crawls around your tank. finds a place to hide. then recreates a copy of the parent who shed it. KINDA COOL HUH ?... and yes, dont worry about them, they are harmless.
spleify
12/16/2008, 09:21 PM
The only negative I see with mine are they eat coraline algae.
LiveRound69 is pretty close with his reproduction process, the dropped legs don't necessarily hide, you will see them all over the tank as well. They reproduce exponentially, and for me I am done with them so I got a Harlequin shrimp, I got 1 of them about 5 years ago, and thought, oh how cool a little star........I literally have hundreds of them. Well....I did until about two weeks ago when I got the Harlequin.
JMO/E
Spleify
paraletho
12/16/2008, 10:09 PM
I've heard of them being called the Uneven Starfish the legs are irregular most of the time. 3 legs or 5 legs but never even lengths. They will feed on Coraline Algae, Zoas,and I,ve even had them nibble on my Green Cloves.
jtma508
12/17/2008, 08:07 AM
Asterina. I've read that the white ones are normally OK. Keep an eye out for the blue-gray variety. They are coral predators. They recently laid-seige on one of my corals. I picked 3 off and had to dip the coral to save it. The buggers are hard to see unless they get on the glass.
matthewscars
12/17/2008, 08:56 AM
asterina starfish - kill them now before they take over.
LiveRound69
01/05/2009, 01:39 AM
mine only eat that dietrus and algae covering the glass on my refugium and some compete with my lawnmower blenny for the green film algae that i dont scrape off the back glass. of my display. dunno about your experiences.
mbell09
01/05/2009, 07:47 AM
i picked up two as hitchikers from my lfs and they do not seem to bother anything but help snail with the alge
njjack2
01/05/2009, 08:46 AM
How do you kill them, or rid them from your tank? Would a Harlequin shrimp work?
spleify
01/05/2009, 09:08 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14082925#post14082925 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by njjack2
How do you kill them, or rid them from your tank? Would a Harlequin shrimp work?
Yes a Harlequin shrimp IME is your best bet. But please know that if you only have a few of them, the Harlequin WILL starve to death after, unless you supplement his diet with full size stars. You will have to purchase stars to feed it.
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