Teensey weensey baby stars

[ihavfishues]

I have at least 5 baby star fish in my tank. The smallest ones are maybe 1/8 inch in diameter, with the largest ones about a 1/2 inch diameter.

My quesiton is this... they only have two or three "good arms" and the others are nubs. Is this how they start out as babies? WIll they fill out and have normal "arms"?

They only come out when the lights are off, then when the lights are on, they slowly slip into seclusion...

Any comments?

Thanks!

Gina

 

[johnski]

sounds like its asterina starfish , keep an eye on them if you've any corals in the tank, some are algae eaters and some are coral eaters

 

[Paintbug]

sound like the harmless Asterina starfish. the reason you have some with "nubs" is thats how the reproduce. they drop an arm, or split in two.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php (toward the bottom)

 

[ihavfishues]

Thanks for the link and the info... do you happen to know how big they get? All of mine seem to be tiny...

??????????????

 

[whiteshark]

I believe they don't get much bigger than 1/2 in diameter...

 

[Freed]

Hold a dime up to your tank. That's the biggest I've seen mine get but not very many of them get that big before they split/divide. They don't eat corals though.

 

[Sk8r]

They do eat coralline.