starfish ID? (pic)

[mayjong]

found this tiny guy on a new piece of coral...he's 1/8 " across... itty-bitty..

 

[redsea reefer]

Might be an Asterina Star

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

+1 asterina

 

[mdntrdr]

yep

 

[micahdeane]

dont mean to highjack this thread but are these starfish bad? i have notice in the past couple weeks i am getting more and more of them. thanks in advance

 

[dalston]

dont mean to highjack this thread but are these starfish bad? i have notice in the past couple weeks i am getting more and more of them. thanks in advance

Yes and no, there are many different species of asternia, some harmless grazers, some coral eaters.

I have had some that have eaten zoas and some that have eaten SPS tissue. I just remove any I see now.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

+1 Asterina.

there are at laest dozens of species of small stars like this that are very tough to distinguish. As has been mentioned some will eat corals and others wont. You can wait and see or pick them out. Personally I'd like to have a few more safe ones in our tank. My GF and I love the one we had. It never seemed to reproduce though. I think because it was the only one we had.

 

[mystery_reef]

+1 asterina.
i always believed these to be harmless and just a part of the tank.
some definitley primarily eat coraline algae but there are a few different variations of these stars imo. until recently there were always a few my tank but then there was an outbreak and several were on my zoanthids. hello harlequin shrimp, bye bye starfish :lol:

 

[Salamander]

I've never had problems with those. But some claim they do. I'd wait before eradicating it. If you can confirm its eating coral (not just on it) then pitch it. Its not like they're hard to catch.