Peppermint shrimp clean starfish?

I just picked up this starfish today. I spent 3 hours acclimating him. I put him in the tank and 1 hour later he's under a rock and my peppermint shrimp is going to town on him... I can't tell if he is cleaning him or attacking... Any idea?

 

Peppermints have been known to eat starfish Then again they've been known to clean em too. Keep an eye on it. If the shrimp looks like it trying to flip the starfish then you'll know for sure. It's trying to eat it.

 

I didn't see the starfish this morning. Hopefully he shows up when the lights come on.

 

I believe that your starfish is a blue linkius . I have a red one which is very cool looking i think. Unfortunately after my purchase (and poor advice from my LFS) i am hearing that they are very hard to keep. They are very sensitive to salinity changes and hard to keep fed. The rumor is that the blues are harder than the reds and that the long term survival in aquariums is poor. That being said, i have had mine for about 2 1/2 months and it appears to have survived a major temp spike i had over the weekend. Hope i did not hijack the thread but it will be interesting to hear from others. Good luck and a VERY nice looking star you have!

 

Yeah, hopefully I can keep him alive. I love his color! I read that they were hard to keep also but was willing to try. I just hope that shrimp didnt eat him last night!

 

Those peppermint shrimp can be buggers, I had a pretty Rock Anemone that had moved on to a Coral, since it was moving I was able to take it off, it went in to a ball and as I was moving him it slipped right out of my fingers, hit the botton off the tank, I went to go get it and one of my Peppermint Shrimp was on it so fast it made my head spin, he dragged it under a rock while eatting it :/ hopefully he didn't make a meal out of your good looking star. I know every time i put something new in my tank the shrimp just had to check it out, thats why I refered to them as nosy in another post. hahaha! Godd luck.

 

He's alive! Alive!!!