Found an odd little hitchhiker today- a mottled purple and white starfish with 5 arms, about 1" in diameter. He's in the tub I'm curing my live rock in, and he's obviously fairly hardy as I've been doing regular and very slap-dash large water changes.
Normally I'd just appreciate a cool little critter that hopefully survives the curing process but I'm nervous because I think he might be secreting a poison of some kind. I went into the garage today to do a water change and noticed the water smelt odd as I was pulling rock out. It's hard to describe but smells almost like peppermint, as weird as that sounds. I found him on the bottom of the tub trying to, I assume, eat the debris? I pulled him out of the water and I'm fairly sure he's the source. He's obviously been crawling over my heater because it had the same smell and felt slimy.
If anyone knows the vague species he is, that'd be brilliant so I could find out of he's dangerous to the system or not. Thanks! Hopefully the attached image works.
Normally I'd just appreciate a cool little critter that hopefully survives the curing process but I'm nervous because I think he might be secreting a poison of some kind. I went into the garage today to do a water change and noticed the water smelt odd as I was pulling rock out. It's hard to describe but smells almost like peppermint, as weird as that sounds. I found him on the bottom of the tub trying to, I assume, eat the debris? I pulled him out of the water and I'm fairly sure he's the source. He's obviously been crawling over my heater because it had the same smell and felt slimy.
If anyone knows the vague species he is, that'd be brilliant so I could find out of he's dangerous to the system or not. Thanks! Hopefully the attached image works.
