Current thoughts on Asterina stars.

Finally spotted the little guy again, six legs and looks kind of pinkish, light colored.

 

....like this one?

 

damn things gone again but aside of the legs being more even, yes.

 

The number of legs has no bearing on the type of asternia.

They loose legs and regenerate legs. They could have 4 at one sighting and 5 weeks later. Odd nor even leg number identification is a myth.

It is extremely hard if not impossible unless you are an marine biologist to identify the type of asternia star based on coloration alone.

I would only be concerned if you start to see increasing numbers of them. Yes some do eat corals but the vast majority are harmless.

 

I've not seen them anywhere except rock and glass, none of my corals seem to have any issues or damage so I'm not that worried about them at the moment.

Currently one is riding on a snail so if that's as bad as they get I've got it made.