Starfish in fuge

[cdangel0]

Still amazes me at some of the things you'll find when you get bored.

Saturday night I found a baby starfish - less then the size of a dime, stuck to the glass in my fuge. I think it may be a chocolate chip as I have just gotten a frag from a guy who says he has one in his tank. The rock that it came on went in the fuge as the coral didn't survive shipping. It is the only place I can think of that I could have gotten one.

Now - I know nothing about them as I have never had one, and always heard that you couldn't have them with corals.

Can I grow it out and keep it? Should I get it out now? Should I grow it out in the fuge and trade it off when it gets bigger?

 

[Gordonious]

It is very unlikely that you have a young star fish from a larger species. It is probably a small species of starfish that was just hiding in the rock work before. It is probably not a parasitic star fish, all though you might find someone jumping on this thread to warn you about them. I will try to find a pic of the ones I've had in my tank reproducing for many years and show you them.(the ones I have are safe and show up often as hitchhikers in peoples tanks(I believe they are called Asterina)

You know where I live also if you want to come by and pick up one of mine and take it home to compare you could do that.

Jon

 

[a1amap]

I heard that some types Asterina wega eats soft corals. I did a quick search and found this:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/inverts/warning-these-not-good-40430.html

 

[Gordonious]

Yeah, that just goes to show even with in a genus species to species can be very different.

I managed to find some pics of a star fish I found in my tank.
<CENTER><IMG SRC="http://www.gordonious.com/RC/MVC-439Lsecond.JPG"><BR><IMG SRC="http://www.gordonious.com/RC/MVC-485L.JPG"></CENTER>
There have never bugged anything in my tank, but then again I haven't had any soft corals in with them.

 

[kaptken]

that one looks like the ones in my tanks too. they dont get much bigger than half an inch. near as i can tell, they are harmless. they have been multiplying for 8 years in all my tanks. real slow moving, and nocturnal. they seem to reproduce by division. soon you will see a couple of 2 or 3 arm new stars. they just split and grow more arms.

nice fishy!

 

[kaptken]

I might say , like that link from al says, there are a lot of different types. someone is always claiming they eat sps or sort corals. mine dont. mine are kinda grayish green tan. but if its crawlling on the glass eating algea , might be a good sign its ok.