is this a baby starfish?

flower

flower

Well-Known Member
No, it is an Asterina star, kind of like a sea slug from the rocks and harmless....some will have six legs some 5 and some 3...I don't know why. Some say they eat coral, but I have never experienced that, they never bothered anything in my tank.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by rainbow grouper http:///t/387846/is-this-a-baby-starfish#post_3415695
Yes but flower they takeover the tank i know from experience in the 52 gallon FOWLR they take over trust me.
I have seen them for years in both my 90g reef and now also the 30g sea horse tank (loaded with nutrients) , and never had anything like that happen...they multiply according to the nutrients in the tank. Live and learn I guess.
 
S

saxman

Guest
FWIW, we've never had a problem with overpopulation of Asterinas. In fact, we often purposely add them to our systems.
 
ufo8micats

ufo8micats

Member
I am going to assume that this little guy is a hitchiker of some sort? Where did it come from? I bought some rubble rock a couple weeks ago. The guy told me that it was small pieces of live rock. If so, have not seen anything growing on it but algae. Is this where this star care from? Its on the glass still. is it eating the algae off the glass? I have never had a hitchiker before. its kind of cool. btw, I don't have any corals. Should I still grab it and pitch it?
 
ufo8micats

ufo8micats

Member
Ok did some research on this little star, got so many mixed reviews. After looking closely at my tank for about 20mins. I noticed that I have Many small feather dusters,4 baby hermit crabs, some kind of green stalk like, possibly plankton growing, some purple algae, and a 4inch bristle worm that was moving rather quickly through the rockwork. I have to say, that now I am as confused as ever. This is my first ever possible fowlr tank. I am in desperate need of what I need to try to pull out, and what I need to keep. I will try to get some pics of the worm and any other unidentified creatures as I see them. Feed back would be greatly appreciated.
 
mproctor4

mproctor4

Member
I wouldn't pull any of those things out. I love diversity in a tank and it improves the health of your tank. Just because the focus of the tank is fish doesn't mean that is all that needs to be in there. You certainly want a clean up crew. Most of those critters you have found will help you. There is always a possibility that some of the fish you choose will kill some of crabs but you won't know till you try. You may find down the road you may even want to add a few corals. A few will do fine with most fish and lower lighting. Before I upgraded my lights, I had the cheapy standard aquarium lights with frogspawn (up high in the tank), few brown mushrooms, and some suncorals that all did great and the fish ignored them.
 
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