odd starfish? or hitchhiker?

[damselsrck]

Hi. I was looking at my rock this morning and spotted something very odd moving along the bottom of a cliff sort of thing..
It looked like a starfish until I saw it was missing it's bottom two legs! Then I noticed it didn't look like a starfish in the way it moved. What would this be? It is brown and looks a little bit fuzzy. Any ideas would be great! I already got it out of my tank, it's in a net now. I don't want to get rid of him if he's beneficial...but if he's bad

 

[symon]

HEre is a link to what i think you are seeing, very common!
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=163871

 

[damselsrck]

Thank you! That's exactly what I have! :cheer: mine is brown with three arms...hmmm I guess that means there might be another...well I've only noticed one. I'll get rid of them/him if he/they start(s) to damage things! :jumping:
Thanks again!

 

[scriggle]

the same thing happened to me and I thought it was cool having a "baby" starfish. 3 months or so after that I noticed they were everywhere, I have picked off at least 150 of them since. since they reproduced so rapidly in my 32 gal they really ate up on my coraline.

 

[ophiura]

I've got loads and have no issues. If you have a lot of them, to reconsider how much you are feeding...they are primarily surface film grazers and quite rarely do any damage, IMO.