What kinda star is this

What kinda star is this.
it is in the bottom of a shot glass.

 

First pic on this page:

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_pages/faq_rock3.htm

 

Nice link AC!

 

The guy from my LFS gave me one just for fun. He told me that they'll clean your tank glass pretty good but they will also chew on hard corals when the glass is clean. And they reproduce like crazy 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4 type reproduction. He only has one tank that he lets then in, the rest of the tank as soon as he see's one he takes it out. I kept mine cause i don't have any stony corals.

Marc.

 

GARF has a good article about those star fish (in the Aquarium Pests section):

http://www.garf.org

 

Ron Shimek says....

A few species of stars may be kept successfully in aquaria. Probably the most ubiquitous of these are several (?) small species of cushion stars, possibly in the genus Asterina. These small stars are gray, white, or sometimes mottled with green, and are about one half inch across. They reproduce by fission, and are seldom seen with a complete array of arms. There appear to be three distinct types, which may be different species, found in reef aquaria. The most common variety is one that appears to eat algae and surface films. The second most common variety (although it is quite rare) eats zoanthids and soft corals. The rarest variety of these small white stars eats stony corals. Fortunately, aquarium control of them is pretty easy. They are not the speediest of animals, and if you find you have a type that is causing problems, periodic starfish safaris can generally rid a tank of them.


in his article here

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rs/



Just to balance out what GARF says.