Starfish?

[vayne]

Guys I have this, I suppose its a starfish. I looked a bit into it and seems like that but Id like to be sure of what it is.

I was wondering if I can keep it or should I get rid of it. I find it rather cute to be honest.

Currently I have only one coral, a GSP and nothing else besides two chromis and two clownfish as well as some hermits one turbo snail and one cleaner shrimp.

 

[rmorris_14]

Guys I have this, I suppose its a starfish. I looked a bit into it and seems like that but Id like to be sure of what it is.

I was wondering if I can keep it or should I get rid of it. I find it rather cute to be honest.

Currently I have only one coral, a GSP and nothing else besides two chromis and two clownfish as well as some hermits one turbo snail and one cleaner shrimp.

looks like an asterina starfish. I've read they are generally harmless but they can multiple to a very large undesirable number.

 

[Uncle99]

Looks like asterina to me
Pest to me

 

[Sharkbait19]

Asterina star.
Most are harmless, but some can be coral eaters. They multiply fast.

 

[Geebs19]

Atrenia starfish, they can reproduce super fast. Up in the air on reef safe, some say they eat zoas.

 

[907_Reefer]

We have a similar hitchhiker from our new live rock, seems to be an Asterina as the others mentioned. Based on my research we've left it for now but will be monitoring for more of them and/or if we see any near corals, will be removing them. Tempted to just nix it next time I catch it on the glass however..

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

With regards to whether or not they eat corals, it might be a species specific thing, it might be a you have way too many starfish so they're out of other food options thing, or it might be they're eating the slime coat/mucus on the coral rather than the coral itself (see below).

It's an Aquilonastra spp. starfish and is a great scavenger. I see them with anywhere from 4 to 12 legs. The whole discusion around them seems to me excellent examples of misidentification, mistaken behaviour and assumed causality based just on heresay without looking at the research. Asterina spp starfish are preditary but only reproduce sexually and are shortlived so while it's possible some might get into a tank even if it did happen it's not going to be around long. Aquilonastra are one of the uncommon species that reproduce fissiparous or by splitting so are easy to identify by the different sized legs regrown after splitting. They perform an important function not only feeding off algae films but also feeding off microbial films including those on corals (at least ones that don't sting). FYI the mucus coating on corals ages and corals have to periodicely shed it to renew it and maintian healthy microbial processes (Ref 1, Ref 2). If Aquilonastra are feeding on zoas or softies I'll argue they are either benign or even beneficial as they may be reducing the unhealthy older mucus which can be full of unhealthy microbes which the animal is trying to get rid of and are far more likely to be the actual problem.

Here's an example, this Toadstool is doing one of it's periodic sheddings. The Aquilonastra have been in this system for years but only climb onto the Toadstool when it's shedding. In the first picture you can see the old mucus film, Aquilonastra starfish and areas they have cleaned off. The second picture shows the Toadstool a week later.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Astaria

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

With regards to whether or not they eat corals, it might be a species specific thing, it might be a you have way too many starfish so they're out of other food options thing, or it might be they're eating the slime coat/mucus on the coral rather than the coral itself (see below).

This is what I was gonna say. I still have them in my tank and they are fine now. When I overfed and they multiplied to an extreme number I had to kill hundreds of them as they resorted to snacking on my zoas.