I have some baby starfish!!

[maryc137]

I have never had a starfish in my tank. The last new live rock was added probably 1 month ago. Last night I saw at least 3 little star fish. They are kind of a creamy tan color and about 1/3 inch wide. Sure are cute!! Hope they don't get so big that they turn into a problem. But it is kind of exciting seeing the things that come in on the live rock!

 

[susiepan]

Mary, just be careful that they are not the 6 leged stars, if they are,they eat coral!!!! their legs are alittle uneven like, I had them in my tank from some LR too.....and I was told they are NOT good...If its not them
'CONGRATS!!!!
~Susie

 

[cadbury]

Not to worry you but I hope you dont have a Reef tank, some star fish will eat away at live coral. Just be careful!

 

[maryc137]

They are the five leg variety, and I do have a reef tank. I'll watch them and if they get big enough to bother anything I figure I can always trade them at the LFS.

 

[joe's reefer]

their common stars nothing special

 

[maryc137]

Not so common to me, they're my babies!!!

 

[bammbamm74]

I have like 4 of them. They are about 1/4" across. Mine are green. CUTE LITTLE SUCKERS!!

 

[the infamous sea cucumber]

Those sound like preditory starfish, and they are dangerous to corals at any size. Check <a href="http://www.garf.org" target="_blank">www.garf.org</a> out and do a serch for "preditory starfish." They have pictures so you can properly ID.

 

[bammbamm74]

I sure hope mine aren't like those. But I know mine only had 5 legs and were very symmetrical

 

[richard rendos]

If it looks like this:

then it is a coral eating star. I would recommend getting rid of it.

 

[jakob4001]

I think the ones that garf shows have a more broad body shape to them where as the smaller micro stars have a more narrow body shape

 

[jakepilot]

congrads on the new babies...beware they arnt the 6 legged ones..--jake

 

[maryc137]

So far the ones I've seen have only five symetrical legs. Don't look at all like those ones that are supposed to eat corals. I'll keep an eye on them though

 

[bt_1999_66]

maryc137,
What you are describing, seems to me that No. 1 95% of the times, they only come out at night. No. 2, If you see one of them during the day, you will most probably see it in a whole on your rock, and most probably only see a part of one or two of the legs, meaning trying to hide.
If this is the case, it most probably is a miniature serpent star.
I have at least 50-75 of these in my reef. Great critters... All they seems to do at night is go where no other detrivore can, thus their very, very small size.
Watch these at night and enjoy....