What is this!? Mini Star Fish?

[Scizzle]

My friend told me there’s a specific place to post this but i couldn’t find it!

Anyway…
We only have live rock from about 5 different stores, and an emerald and a cleaner crew, The tank is just a few weeks old! What is this thing?
It looks like a mini starfish?
It was in the water on my heater, i pulled it to take the picture.

http://www.dirtybootsadventures.com/starfish.jpg

[peasofme]

asterina micro stars. most think they're harmless. some think they eat coral.

[stingythingy45]

Asterina is a genus of small sea stars within the family Asterinidae

[snorvich]

asterina micro stars. most think they're harmless. some think they eat coral.

I do not know which way I come down on "harmless" or "harmful". I do know that Harlequin shrimp will eat them.

[bboudreaux]

they are harmless, but believe me they will reproduce in the thousands. remove them everytime you see one or you will be sorry. i have a harlequin right now and even she can't keep up with them probably gonna have to get her a mate to help out.

[cloak]

I don't trust them. I remove them on sight. The fact that they can reproduce to plague like proportions alone is reason enough to get rid of them IMO.

[snorvich]

I don't trust them. I remove them on sight. The fact that they can reproduce to plague like proportions alone is reason enough to get rid of them IMO.

My question has been: What do they eat? Until I am totally sure of that, I distrust them.

[peasofme]

supposedly algae. i think they may have killed my corals. not sure though.

[64Ivy]

I've got thousands of them. Literally, thousands. No problems other than aesthetic.

[peasofme]

would be cool for keeping a harlquin though

[cloak]

My question has been: What do they eat? Until I am totally sure of that, I distrust them.

I agree. There were some weird spots on the side of my tank the other day. My guess is that is was an asterina star. If they can make marks like that on coralline algae, a thirst for corals (sps) would be a whole different story. "Show's over!"

[sponger0]

Have tons of them in my tank and never seen them harm anything. But if you wanna know how many you have...look when the lights go out. Thats when they come out.

[Blayz77]

not sure how these got into my tank since i started with dead rock, but i have them too. as far as what they eat ive noticed at least in my tank they will eat coraline algea which is unfortunate. fo those of you who notice little white spots or fading purple color on the rocks thats these little buggers eating.

[sponger0]

I have so much coralline, they cant seem to put a dent in it. So I let them be.

[cloak]

I bought an emerald crab once before. It didn't do much for the valonia I had, but after awhile my zoanthids didn't seem to look as good anymore. It was a quick fix.

FWIW.

[snorvich]

would be cool for keeping a harlquin though

Amazingly enough, a harlequin can deplete the tank.

[Reefnut2010]

I have a lot of these suckers everywhere and my Purple Coralline is almost gone. I'm starting to syphon as many as i can out with every water change. I did not mind them at first, but now I don't like them. They're everywhere and it's and eyesore, Plus I really liked my Purple Coralline.

[Meshmez]

so i never noticed any harm done by the stars... until today. i have lots of lps and softies that they seem to leave alone, but last night i put my first small sps frag in my tank, today i came home from work to see a star on the bottom part of the frag, and the whole base of the sps frag no longer has any polyps, its POSSIBLE they are just retracted from the annoyance, but it looks completely white and sucked out, where before even when retracted you could tell there was something in there...

[dzhuo]

Lots of Asterina have not been fully identified and their dietary requirement is still a mystery. There is absolutely no way anyone would be able to correctly identify an Asterina with a single photo. With all known Asterina, roughly 50% of them eats and hunts actively eating algae and anything they can overpower (including both hard and soft corals). Generally speaking, Asterina should be removed due to the highly uncertainly of unknown (for example, a shortage of algal might force them to eat corals). Basically, you are taking a risk with them (like many crabs and shrimps).

[Scizzle]

I have no coral so for now I think it's just cool to have IMHO.

[pentrix2]

i agree with everyone, they reproduce like crazy. take them out whenever you see them.

Pen

[RattlerSkin]

I have no coral so for now I think it's just cool to have IMHO.

Well, it may be cool to have now until it starts reproducing and you cant control it. I'm not one to like the idea of adding one creature to control another, why not prevent it?

[rcmania]

but its so cute!!

[Bootes123]

i saw three of these about 5 months ago and have yet to see any since. They don't seem to be multiplying in my tank....

[ovrboost]

agree they multiply like crazy, most likely a nuisance...dont think they are harmful.

[Voodoodauley]

I caught a similar species the other day. It was what appeared to be a mini serpent or brittle star. All white with 5 very thin tentacles. Couldn't have been bigger than an inch. Wasn't sure what to make of it. Since I have no Reef I wasn't overly concerned. I was kind of excited actually because I thought my Green Brittle star had multiplied somehow. Sorry no pictures. I don't have that capability at this time.

[dankoos]

They are absolutely harmful!! I have witnessed several of the thousands in my tank chomp on and kill polyps of zoas and palys. I also had a star kill a small frag of leather coral. They seem to easily overpower small zoa polyps and even small/medium paly polyps. They don't seem to have the size/power to get to the bigger palys, just make them close up. I at first liked them until I witnessed this. However, I have way too many now. I can't keep any small frags in my DT, I have to wait until they get bigger. I did get a harlequin and I have witnessed him feeding on the stars, but he can't keep up. My tank is 90 gal w/ 55 gal sump and 38 gal attached frag tank. As soon as you see one, get it out!!!