baby star find.. identification please.. w/photo

Found this little guy cruzin on my rock.. musta been a hitchiker from my last load of LR.. Anyone know what it is? Should I just let it grow and keep an eye on it? Sure is a cute little bugger.. and he can really scoot.. Took my eye off him for 5 minutes and it took me a couple hours to find him again..



Cheers,
Jerid

 

Looks like an asterina star to me. They have been reputed to eat sps corals but I've never had a problem with them and I've had plenty.

 

Definetly an asterina star. Amcarrig is right, they have been reported to be "not reef safe" but people continue to counter that and say that they eat micro-fauna and algea.

They reproduce rather quickly and will become a plague over time, I would take every star you see out, as there will be plenty of those boogers. You know they drop legs and reproduce just like that. That's why when you see an asterina loitering it will have missing legs.

 

yep asterina. heres another thread about them http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/bad-star-fish-31490.html?highlight=star fish

Marc.

 

holy cow.. !

Ok.. so get this.. the lil bugger split within 8 hours of posting my inital pic.. shesh... I thought it would get a bit bigger before it started doing that.. here is a new pic..

 

nope they wont get bigger than that... and trust me you havent seen the last of them. I started out with one (that i introduced to the tank DUH!!!!) well after a couple of weeks there were so many i couldnt count them all.

Marc.

 

he and his 2 legged friend are gone... :-| pryed them loose with a shishkabab stick and sucked em up with the turkey baster..

 

P.S.. Thanks for your replies and help.