Baby Starfish?
 

Hello, I was wondering what you guys think of this. I was cleaning my sump out and noticed a few of these little guys, are they baby starfish? Now I did have a red fromia a few months back, but it sort of "disintegrated" when my friend was babysitting my tank while I was in Europe for a few weeks (he screwed up on the salinity levels) anywho, I didn't think starfish really reproduced in captivity anyway, but I cant think what else these little suckers are, they look exactly like small starfish. They are really small, like, the size of this emoji lol :spin1: Thanks for any input you may have.

So I guess I just found the answer lol. Asterina star, well, as of now I've only seen a few, and only in the sump, so I guess I'll take a wait and see approach. Won't be grabbing any harlequin shrimp yet lol.

I would remove them ASAP. some say they cause no harm but I had them and they ate all good algae, which threw off the balance in the tank...took forever to recover! get rid of them either by hand or harlequin shrimp.

As in everything, it is a question of balance. I prefer the micro stars that are translucent. They make excellant detrivores.

Harlequin eat asterina with a relish. A friend had an overflow weir back to tank. A harlequin lived in the tank but would feast on the edges of the overflow. It was neat to watch him feed.

As it stands I don't want to pick up a harrliquin because I've only seen a few asterina stars and the shrimp would likely go through them quick. Plus I'd like to get another blue linkia.

I'll only offer this advise: Unless you have been in the hobby for years, have a large and very mature tank and know what you are doing (you didn't know what an asterina star was when you saw it), please don't get a blue linkia star. IMHO, 90% of them, or more, are condemned to death when bought and it happens in less than a few months.

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Don't worry to much about them if they are in your sump. Once they get into the main, and start giving you issues, then you can worry. lol But not a huge issue for now.

Im all for removing them, but the practice of removing them by hand is almost useless. SOME ppl may have success with this, but understand that they hide everywhere, and finding every single one is almost impossible. You can pick off a few from the glass, but I wouldn't go searching for them. And like I said before, unless they are giving you trouble, the sump is a good place for them.

I have had asternia stars in my tank for a few months now, but I can never "see" more than 5 or 6 at a time. I have noticed that they are missing legs now and again, probably due to being fed on my the odd hermit crab. I like looking at them and they seem totally harmless. I'd be worried that introducing a harlequin shrimp would result in the stars being totally wiped out, and the shrimp subsequently starving.

Took over 300 out of our tank once I finally started removing them.
It's supposed to be the darker ones that are a problem but I get rid of all of them now. Still occasionally remove one a week after a year of trying to get rid of all of them.

You may want to get ahead of the game as soon as you can.


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