Baby Star fish?

[FishTri]

I bought some live rock from a fellow reefer and put it in a 55Gallon quarantine tank on Tuesday. There was one brittle star in with the rock, so that's a welcome hitch hiker.

Over the last day or two I've noticed what look like baby starfish (maybe half a dozen) crawling on the glass.

Is there anything I should be doing to feed them or help them mature?

Thanks.

 

[graveyardworm]

They are most likely mini brittle stars, and you are probably seeing adult sizes. They are excellent cleaners, no additional feeding is necessary, just feed your fish and they will get what they need.

 

[FishTri]

The reason I thought they were babies is that they were different sizes, and some of them had two or three arms that were long, and several that were shorter.

It looked to me like they were going through a development stage where some of the arms were growing more quickly than others.

 

[Springmo]

Sounds like Asterina starfish to me, a common hitchhiker. They reproduce by dropping their legs, which is why some legs are shorter than others. You probably don't need to feed them, they don't get very big and are usually detritus eaters.

 

[graveyardworm]

Some mini brittles also reproduce by dividing.

 

[Springmo]

It's hard to say what they are without a pic