Help ID please

[pascal32]

I was checking up on the new 120 and found this guy on the glass.

just over 1/4" in size. I remember a post from Gary saying little starfish could cause problems with some corals...

my first ever white balanced aperture priority picture on a point and click canon powershot SX110

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Asterina

No big deal unless they reach plague proportions.

 

[pascal32]

Just found this article: http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.shtml

seems like some have a taste for SPS, others not...

 

[5380]

Mine seemed to bother SPS and definitely ate coralline algae off the glass.

 

[cardiffgiant]

There are a lot of types of small starfish that resemble these. I have them in my tank and my experience is that they do not go after corals. I think that's fairly common. There are reports of some types that do eat corals, so I'd just keep an eye on their behavior.

 

[Henry Colf]

i would remove it and any you see after it....They become a nusince in the home aquarium in my opinion. I'm thinking of getting a Harlequin shrimp to eradicate the ones in my tank...a few turned into hundreds......

 

[pascal32]

i would remove it and any you see after it....They become a nusince in the home aquarium in my opinion. I'm thinking of getting a Harlequin shrimp to eradicate the ones in my tank...a few turned into hundreds......

they are kinda cute though! Do they really reproduce that quickly?

 

[Henry Colf]

Yeah, I have probably 500 or more in my tank and I have already cleaned them up once...

 

[tmz]

Their populations tend to wax and wane in realtion to nutrient levels in my experience.. In large numbers they can be harmful as irritants even if they're not the predatory type.
A harleqin shrimp (Hymenocera picta)will eat them but it's an obligate feeder on live strarfish and will starve when the asterina are almost gone unless you feed it starfish. if it starves and nothing else changes the asterina return. Many use live chocolate chip stars (Protoreaster nodosus) to keep harlequins longer.

I used a piece of rigid airline tubing attached to flexible tubing to shiphon asterina off the glass and rocks in the am
( they come out when lights are out or dim in greater numbers and are easy to get at first light in the tank . This small shiphoning device didn't use much water and the water could easily be put back in the tank without the asterina. It works very well ;quick and easy. I can remove hundreds in a short period of time when populations are high.

 

[Blugobi]

Just a note...many LPS will eat these pesty buggers, so give it try if they dont like em the will spit them back out. My Duncans will eat them with no issues as well as Tracaphillia and many others.

Geo

 

[Piazzon12]

Interesting to note Geo.. I'll have to try right now