Little starfish

[coralstacker]

Are the tiny white starfish that hitchhike their way into your tank harnful in any way, such as eating too much. There are over 100 in my 75 gallon. I have many infant snails that were born in my tank but none of them mature plus I can't get green mushrooms to grow. I saw a starfish on the mushroom and began wondering if these starfish are doing something to it. Are they starfish or a form of brittlestar. My lfs said they were baby starfish a long time ago but I read once they were a brittlestar. Besides these I do have a large # of some kind of brittlestar in here as well.They only get to be about 1/4" disk with legs about 1-1/4" long

 

[reefforbrains]

Starfish and brittle stars look quite different.
Both are present in home aquariums..(both harmless)
But I think what you are looking at are called Asterina Stars

Most well known for having 100 in your tank and not a single one will be symetrical will all of its legs...look like a little band of misfit toys.
these your stars?

 

[reefforbrains]

As for the mini brittles, yes that is probably exactly what you have. They do not grow larger, they keep thier tiny size.
Harmless. Part of your clean up crew.

 

[ophiura]

Both micro brittlestars and Asterina stars are probably highly correlated with maturity and feeding of the tank...that is, if there is a lot of food, you will have a lot of them.

 

[coralstacker]

Thanks for the input, I've just come to wonder about these asterina stars because I also have a post open about my green mushroom problem and I noticed a couple of times lately that there was a star on top of whats left of 5 mushrooms and it made me wonder if the stars were eating on the mushrooms.

 

[big]

Originally Posted by ophiura
http:///forum/post/3088811
Both micro brittlestars and Asterina stars are probably highly correlated with maturity and feeding of the tank...that is, if there is a lot of food, you will have a lot of them.
Hey Susan, if you are still following this thread I have a question............
Like most everyone else I have a few Asterian stars. The tissue I have if often the ones in my tank are missing legs or appear to have been chomped on by something. Sometimes they are just a mouth and a bit of a leg or two on the glass.. What do you think is dining on the little guys??
The tank is mature with no know parasitic hitchhikers, that I know of.
Fish in the 72 bow tank are a Maroon Clown, Yellow Tang, 3 P.J.s, a Red Scooter, and a LMB .... Also there is a Purple Urchin which shows himself every few months which I suspect as the culprit, but I am not sure.Thanks........ Warren

 

[ophiura]

Nothing, this is how they reproduce. In short, they do it to themselves. A good thing

 

[big]

Oh...........

Thanks.........