Star fish or some type of disease?

[gilbert23]

First time on here. New in the hobby. I just noticed this black thing on my zoa. Looks like a star fish only thing I could think of. Can anyone help me identify what this is?

 

[Garf]

First time on here. New in the hobby. I just noticed this black thing on my zoa. Looks like a star fish only thing I could think of. Can anyone help me identify what this is?

Looks like an asterina star of some variety. Not sure what the recent thoughts are about these, but the dark ones (like this) were thought to be problematic, way back when.

 

[gilbert23]

Thank you I wasn’t sure. I will be removing him if that’s the case.

 

[kevgib67]

Thank you I wasn’t sure. I will be removing him if that’s the case.

I always remove them when I see them but can never keep up!