What is in our tank?

[clown lover]

We have a 20 gal tank. We have what look like, two baby star fish. We were told at the fish store that these are really bad. Especially if you have any coral. They appeared on the glass one day and now that we know we have them we see them on the rocks. What are they? Should we rid our tank of them? A chocalate chip star has 5 legs, these have 6. Thanks for your help.

 

[joker_ca]

they are hitchikers on your LR i have a ton in my tank, i have read somewhere(recently) in here that they should be ok in a reef
you might want to search for that post, if i find it i'll post a link to it

 

[joker_ca]

Originally posted by ophiura
They are Asterina stars and are hitch hikers on LR. If one survives the cycle, you will get many more as they reproduce well in our tanks. They are very tough critters (surviving, after all, on LR during transport out of water). They will not get much larger than that. Most are harmless grazers on algal films on the glass and rocks. Very, very few are considered bad, and it is virtually impossible to tell which are which. I wouldn't worry unless you see them eating your coral. But I would say most people have them, and extremely few people have problems.

found that post for u