Hitchhiker Star Fish, is it bad?

[Idonthaveanick]

HI All,

Today I found on my aquarium glass what appears to be a hitch hiker starfish, well half of it anyways because it has three pointy ends so it does look like a half star. Anyways, are starfish bad for your reef aquarium?

Thanks

 

[Deton8it]

Is it about the size of a fingernail? Google Asterina starfish.


John

 

[Idonthaveanick]

Yes! That's what it is! Is it bad? I am planning on doing mostly corals LPS and stoney now and eventually some SPS. Will it be a problem?

 

[Deton8it]

That is debatable. Asking if they are good or bad is like asking about which political party is better. Everyone is right in there mind and everyone else is wrong. I personally have never had a problem with them. I suspect the bad coral eating ones are a subspecies of the ones that have been in my tank. I have never had an issue with them hurting anything.


John

 

[Idonthaveanick]

Thanks John for your quick responses! I decided that since I didn't put it there, I wasn't gonna trust it, so I removed it.

 

[Noah 123]

If they're white, they're probably ok. Brown ones eat coralline and coral.

 

[Calappidae]

Asterina is an interesting case of bad hitchhikers.

Truth be told, most are reef safe, few are not.. and there is no way to identify which ones are as they all look alike. So you only find out the hard way. Like rolling dice, one side is going to be bad.

Anything thing is their reproductive habits.. they never stop breeding.

 

[snorvich]

If they're white, they're probably ok. Brown ones eat coralline and coral.

This.

 

[snorvich]

But if you have a lot of them a Harlequin Shrimp will remove them.

 

[Calappidae]

But if you have a lot of them a Harlequin Shrimp will remove them.

Only if your tank is safe enough for them and contain no predators.. and you have a back up plan when their job is done if you don't want to keep feeding them.

 

[Idonthaveanick]

Yup, thanks again guys, It seems that it was just that one. I have not seen another one yet. So, hopefully that was the ONLY one in the tank. I didn't want to risk it, so I took it out.

 

[J2T]

Yup, thanks again guys, It seems that it was just that one. I have not seen another one yet. So, hopefully that was the ONLY one in the tank. I didn't want to risk it, so I took it out.

maybe...usually if you see one there are more that you haven't seen yet lol FWIW they have been in my tank almost from the get go and have not caused any problems for close to 3 years now.

 

[Idonthaveanick]

Sweet, I hope these are the same way as yours Jared