Friend or foe?

[mherb24]

Had a hermit die last night. While playing back my video of my tank I saw what appears to be a starfish possibly.

I have only a 1” brittle star that came in on a frag, but have not seen for at least a month.

my only recent purchase was a scarlet red crab and a lettuce sea slug 6 days ago. I inspected the crabs shell prior to putting in tank.

Is the a baby star or should I pull it? Right now it’s hiding under my auto feeder.

Oh, it looks like it only has four stubs, not 5.

 

[Tumey]

Asterina, mixed opinions about these guys. Some reefers pull them out others like myself don’t.

 

[sfin52]

Asterina, mixed opinions about these guys. Some reefers pull them out others like myself don’t.

Finding them on the glass prob ok anything next to coral goes bye bye

 

[malacoda]

Most likely an asterina starfish. Not harmful to other critters or corals. Some people don't mind them. Others consider them a pest. On very, very, very, very rare occasion ... they can multiply like crazy and overwhelm a tank in numbers.

I would suggest searching 'asterina' and reading through a few pages worth of threads before deciding if they're something you want to eliminate from you tank ... or something you don't want to be concerned about.

I've had them in my tank for 2 years now ... most likely from Pacific live rock ... and their population has remained small. So, they're not a concern for me.

 

[Tired]

Asterina. Some people have them eat corals, but that seems to be either in super clean tanks where they're starving, or with a couple of specifically coral-eating species. Mostly they don't do any harm.

Got any super tiny coral frags that could easily get eaten all in one go? If not, leave it in, and pull it if you see something getting chewed.

 

[mherb24]

Asterina. Some people have them eat corals, but that seems to be either in super clean tanks where they're starving, or with a couple of specifically coral-eating species. Mostly they don't do any harm.

Got any super tiny coral frags that could easily get eaten all in one go? If not, leave it in, and pull it if you see something getting chewed.

Thanks, I’m doing a lot of quick read on them. Bring mine has 3 maybe 4 legs, I’m assuming their are more in the tank. This is my first sign. I’m doing a quick deep look at everything and just came across this on my front glass. Any ideas? Might be 1/32 of an inch, can’t make it out with naked eye.

 

[Tired]

Hydroid. Common in new tanks, usually fade out on their own or get grown over by corals.

 

[terraincognita]

Had a hermit die last night. While playing back my video of my tank I saw what appears to be a starfish possibly.

I have only a 1” brittle star that came in on a frag, but have not seen for at least a month.

my only recent purchase was a scarlet red crab and a lettuce sea slug 6 days ago. I inspected the crabs shell prior to putting in tank.

Is the a baby star or should I pull it? Right now it’s hiding under my auto feeder.

Oh, it looks like it only has four stubs, not 5.

Also.

Are you 1,000% sure it's dead?

and not a molt?

Photos?

 

[mherb24]

Also.

Are you 1,000% sure it's dead?

and not a molt?

Photos?

He’s dead. Their molts have freaked me out in the past, but his shell is semi transparent. I could see his body in the shell. Not anymore.

I have a camera mounted on the side of my tank since I travel a lot. I went back and watched him. He was in the center of the tank. Scooted over to my rock covered in palys, and just stopped. A few hours later my neon blue hermit flipped the shell over and started flipping it around. Like he was checking it for fit. You can see all the snails in the tank swarm the shell and then disappear. Granted I was watching on 16x speed. It was my largest hermit, always pinned down other hermits for hours, never hurting them. Bummed, but I prefer the neon blue, Halloween, and red scarlet hermits that I have.

 

[terraincognita]

He’s dead. Their molts have freaked me out in the past, but his shell is semi transparent. I could see his body in the shell. Not anymore.

I have a camera mounted on the side of my tank since I travel a lot. I went back and watched him. He was in the center of the tank. Scooted over to my rock covered in palys, and just stopped. A few hours later my neon blue hermit flipped the shell over and started flipping it around. Like he was checking it for fit. You can see all the snails in the tank swarm the shell and then disappear. Granted I was watching on 16x speed. It was my largest hermit, always pinned down other hermits for hours, never hurting them. Bummed, but I prefer the neon blue, Halloween, and red scarlet hermits that I have.

Oh shame,

i was hoping for the best.