Starfish????

Hi everyone this is my first post ever!
so bought i pretty neat piece of live rock, and when i got home from work tonight i looked at it and saw a little six legged star fish! totally unexpected........... i'm not sure if i should be happy yet, is it a pest? should i get rid of it or can i keep him?? i attached a picture hope it helps you cant see it in the pic but he dose have six legs.
THANKS

 

Hey Jorge! Welcome to 3Reef!
Normally little star fish like that are Asterina's, however i've never seen one that colour. So im a little confuzzled about it.
if it is Asterina there is a mix bag of opinoins on these, personally i just leave them, but if i ever see one spending a little too long on my Zoo's etc - i remove it!

 

My tanks got some Asterina too and they dont look like yours. They are greenish and are lopsided from splitting into baby stars. They havent eaten any of my corals but they do take chuncks out of my coraline algae.

 

To me that "kinda" look's like a small Chocolate chip star... mho i would remove it if possiable.. Or If you have a fuse send him to it..


Good luck..!!

 

I would leave it until it creates a problem, it's not like it's too fast to catch if it does become and issue...i generally go with the innocent until proven guilty rule with hitch hickers, unless its proves 100% to be a bad creature I leave it go, I was thinking asterina but I don't have much experience with starfish

 

I would leave it for now, I have one that's a little lighter in color that's been in my tank for 3 months or so and always stays on 1 rock. I've never seen him cause any trouble, Like it has been said earlier if it does start to eat corals you don't want it to,its easy to catch.

Good Luck and Welcome to 3reef

Cat4wisson

 

Welcome aboard... what type of camera and lense did you use? It looks nice and clear.

 

for some reason, a long time ago, I think I remember hearing, "5 legs are good, 6 legs are bad". Anyone else ever heard that?

 

Looks cool I just stared to see white ones in my tank and somewhere along the line got a very small brittle star roaming around in there. I did not realise these little guys nipped corals.

 

No I haven't.......now I am curious.