Starfish(?) Hitchhiker

Maybe you saw this thread recently.
http://www.3reef.com/threads/when-asterina-starfish-attack.155758/

 

Such mixed opinions on these guys. I can understand removing due to the unsightliness of having a lot. In my old tank I had quite a few, they were usually the first thing people unfamiliar to the hobby pointed out, "is that a baby starfish? HOW CUTE" (forget the expensive corals, lets look at the free starfish lol) Needless to say, no matter how many were in my tank I never saw any of my corals show signs of being eaten. The ones in my tank were merely another member of the CUC, eating diatoms, film algae (the light green tint that sometimes forms on glass) and coralline algae.

That being said, the stars in question are often called "asterina;" that is merely a genus name, with over 30 different species, the name is even used to refer to the family "asterinidae" which contains something like 120 species, many of which DO consume coral.

The ones in the trade most often seen consuming coral typically go after Zoanthids or smooth skin Acropora, typically deep water types.

Your call on removing them, but I personally try not to kill something unless I know for a fact that its bad, after all, nothing ever asked to be removed from the ocean and put in our tanks.

Just my own opinion, of course.

 

Not necessarily. This I think proves they can get quite large in size.
http://www.3reef.com/threads/starfish-id.155870/

 

+1, its hard to say "that is their full size" when we aren't 100% sure of the species. Where I work, we got a starfish belonging to the genus asterina in on an order of live rock. Almost identical in looks and color to the littler guys except 6" across.

Not to say that all will grow that big, most of the time the ones in our tanks are in fact the little guys that don't get bigger than half a centimeter.