Tiny starfish? Are these good or bad?

SillyDox

New member
Hey guys!

Bought some snails and these rode in on them! They're tiny starfish, are they goodies or baddies??

Thanks!
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Looks like asterina starfish. Debatable on if they're handful or not but they are prolific spreaders so may be good to get rid of them now.


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Eeeeek! I'll do just that. Thank you! I don't want pests breeding all over haha


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In an SPS tank, they can actually be beneficial. They eat the biofilm on rocks and also coralline algae. That way they create settling grounds for coral larvae and eliminate competition. But if you have nuisance algae issues they equally created settling grounds for more of those.
 
If one of my tanks seems to have an overabundance, I spread them out to my others. IMHO, the are a beneficial part of your CUC. And FWIW - if there is too many, it is due to too much available food.
 
another vote for "benign to good."

I wouldn't pay to add them to a tank, but they do something in there. They've never caused an issue in my tanks, so I welcome them. If anything, they're another interesting animal, like micro brittle stars and stomatella snails.
 
I'm always glad to see them. They add biodiversity. They nosh a little coralline, but it grows right back.
 
+1 I also see them as good indicator species for heavy metals. If they start to decline an aquarists definitely need to start looking at everything going on in a system.
 
I have hundreds if not thousands of them and they do not bother anything. I plan on adding a linckia starfish which from what I have read all be it ( anecdotal ) may eat them so maybe a food source.
 
I have them, they reproduce like crazy. I bought a harlequin shrimp, and it's eating them slowly but surely.


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They are also really great if you want to keep Harlequin shrimps. I rather feed them these little guys than have them feed on large starfish that have to be collected off reefs.
 
Thanks all!

I only had 2 and I ended up bagging them up and taking them to my LFS and they took them, though with weird looks haha!

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I've had them before. Not aware they ever caused any issues, and I never made any effort to remove or reduce the numbers. Sometimes there were more, sometimes there were less, I figured some non-harmful biodiversity was a good thing.

-Hans
 
I'm going to disagree with most posts here.............I hate them and they're a detriment as they can easily decimate all coraline growth, which allows other pest algae to take hold.

When you have Acro frags trying to get established any algae slows growth at the base area as its an ongoing battle. Coraline is wimpy and Acros kill it easily and can spread faster.

A Nordoa starfish are will do a faster job of cleaning them up than a harlequin shrimp.
 
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