offshore80
Member
this thing is sliding around my clam. Is it bad? Looks kinda like a star fish??? Sorry for the bad picture. It's the white looking thing in the middle of the clam shell.
ID please
- Thread starter offshore80
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shawnts106
Member
yeah, those stars like to much on sps corals... get it out now!
yosemite sam
Active Member
Um, isn't that an asterina starfish? They are prefectly safe. Keep an eye on it, but if it's what I think it is, it's nothing to worry about.
shawnts106
Member
wait... you may be right, isnt there a species of star that looks like that one, but isnt???
effloresce
Member
Originally posted by shawnts106
yeah, those stars like to much on sps corals... get it out now!
quit giving bad advice, every 1 in 1,000,000 is an SPS muncher, but when in the tank they will multiply, i ahve about 100 of those, and a thriving SPS tank.
shawnts106
Member
Are you positive... I have heard and read some much on these stars being ... completly not reef safe.. I know that there is a star like this one that isnt reef safe.. thats why I said that.. anyone could have made this mistake ok!!!! so dont acuse me for giving bad advise.. Im not sure I would want that many little stars in my tank anyway!
just wondering!
just wondering!
T
thomas712
Guest
Yeah those could be the harmless ones or the sps munchers, the only think you can do is watch them. If they attack you will need to pull them out with tweezers. I'm not sure without checking with Ophiura but I believe that the harmful ones have odd number of legs and are usually a darker color.
ophiura
Active Member
I have not seen definitive ways to identify the problem one's...apart from saying that they don't wander around aimlessly until they find SPS coral to eat! 
The majority are harlmess surface film grazers hanging out on hard surfaces - rocks, glass, clam shells . If you see some on SPS corals, and there are spots showing up on your corals...then they are bad! But really, it is very difficult, even for seastar experts to identify these guys. The number of arms, size and color are all pretty variable...it really is a DNA study. I have many (no SPS corals)...most people have at least some...and very few people have reported any problem. I think it is more common to hear of them eating coralline (which should grow back) than actually finding the SPS eaters.
The majority are harlmess surface film grazers hanging out on hard surfaces - rocks, glass, clam shells . If you see some on SPS corals, and there are spots showing up on your corals...then they are bad! But really, it is very difficult, even for seastar experts to identify these guys. The number of arms, size and color are all pretty variable...it really is a DNA study. I have many (no SPS corals)...most people have at least some...and very few people have reported any problem. I think it is more common to hear of them eating coralline (which should grow back) than actually finding the SPS eaters.
effloresce
Member
when in doubt, banish em to the sump
shawnts106
Member
exactly... when it dought, pull them suckers out! LOL, sorry just had to have another one! LOL
ophiura
Active Member
We'd end up pulling an aweful lot of things out of our tanks then...because we don't recognize them or know about them, and considering how cryptic these guys are (and how easily they reproduce) it would be a long term thing. Takes some of the joy out, IMO. I just don't see what warrants this sort of idea in this case. It is just not all that common to see the trouble makers, and that is not just MO. And you could be pulling out things that are actually good (as these are generally considered to be) and add diversity to the system...and have probably been there a LONG time without doing any harm but now you just happened to see it. Suit yourself.
Send them to me. I'll take them all.
Send them to me. I'll take them all.
shawnts106
Member
Yeah, my best bet would just to watch and carfully monitor corals with these guys, make sure you dont have any, so to speak, bite marks!
and if you really do want to get rid of them just get a pair of Harliquen *sp?* shrimp! they will eat them up!
and if you really do want to get rid of them just get a pair of Harliquen *sp?* shrimp! they will eat them up!