starfish hitched, keep or not?

I noticed this LITTLE starfish just now on a baserock. I have some lr in the tank also so I know he hitched a ride on those. I hope you can tell what he is by these pictures because they are the best I can do. If he needs to be removed I would like to do it now before I lose him in the rock. As you can tell it is very small. What is it? Do I want it?

Thanks

 

It is an asterina. I'd take it out.

 

Great, thanks for the quick reply. I took him out. I have him in a jar with a pinch of sand and tank water. I was wondering if he could go in the refug?

 

They reproduce by dropping legs. If you think your filtration is good enough that a leg off him can't get into the main tank, go for it.

 

I, for the life of me, have not seen any negative impact from these Asterina Stars! KNOCK ON WOOD!

 

I also have a few of those and some white odd shaped ones to. everynight i check my corals and have never seen any starfish on them or close. think il keep mine

 

There are MANY, MANY species in the Asterina genus. The majority of them are not harmful in a reef tank.

Saying all Asterina are bad or good is like saying all species of dogs are good or bad because you've once met a good dog or you've once met a bad dog.

 

Well I put him back in the main tank. I do not have any coral yet so he can help clean. I looked up info on these and everything said as long as they have plenty of junk to eat then they will not bother anything else. As soon as your tank is super clean that is when they attack. Plus the kids think it's cool to look at.

 

Like curt said, Asterina sp. as a whole are not good or bad. Just like with any species of creatures some are good, some are bad. I had one friend who had some, and he couldnt keep corals and couldnt figure out why, he knew had asterinas, but he was told they were good. Then one day he bought some new corals and saw them munching the corals. Then another buddy had some that kept the glass clean and didnt touch anything else. Its more or less a 50/50 chance since 90% of them look a like. I'd toss it just to be on the safe side, or find somebody who has harlequin shrimps and give them a treat, lol.

 

The ones that you have don't look like the bad ones. The bad ones are 6 armed with one arm longer then the other (the one that is about to split to create a new star).