What are these and are they bad?

[Dom]

- Don't know what this thing is. He has been around for a while; sometimes he is stuck on the glass and other times, I don't know where he is. The photo is the underside taken through the glass.



-This is the same guy from the top, through the glass from the other side of the tank. Also notice those little Hershey Kiss like things next to it. It looks like a some kind of tiny snail



- This is a photo of the Hershey Kiss snail from the underside while stuck to the glass.

Curious as to what these are.

Thanks
Dom

 

[FLAdaboy]

Asterina starfish. You can get rid of the by putting a harlequin shrimp in the tank. They might become a nuisance. When the shrimp is done eating them pass the shrimp along to someone else.

 

[Dom]

Asterina starfish. You can get rid of the by putting a harlequin shrimp in the tank. They might become a nuisance. When the shrimp is done eating them pass the shrimp along to someone else.

Which are you speaking of; the first pic?

What about the Other things?

 

[Maritimer]

"Hershey's kiss" looks like a limpet - it's a snail relative, and is busily munching algae.

Some folks like Asterina stars, some despise them, and some consider them a minor annoyance. Some say that the white ones are safe and the colored ones feast on zoanthids.

~Bruce

 

[FLAdaboy]

Limits is my guess for the snail like things. Never had an issue.

 

[FLAdaboy]

Limpits, not limits. Using my phone.

 

[kgeig001]

Top one is a Astirina starfish. The majority are harmless. I've had them in my tanks for years with no problems. The other guy is some snail. Can't tell what kind from that picture angle.

 

[Dom]

Let them be?

 

[FLAdaboy]

You can let them be if you'd like. They will split like crazy. I don't like them because they multiply and cover everything. I have had them eat zoas too.

 

[Dom]

Sounds like Astirina is going in the sump. The snails can stay.

 

[Roboson]

I have had one asterina in my tank for about 6 months. It's only split once and never even goes near corals. If you like it, you don't need to sump it. Mine eats film algae on glass so I love it. They only get crazy if there's a food source that lets them.

 

[lakereef]

Sounds like Astirina is going in the sump. The snails can stay.

Won't matter, they'll still spread from the sump.

Here's a few I siphoned off the glass

 

[FLAdaboy]

I have had one asterina in my tank for about 6 months. It's only split once and never even goes near corals. If you like it, you don't need to sump it. Mine eats film algae on glass so I love it. They only get crazy if there's a food source that lets them.

How do you only have one? Shine a light in your tank and I bet you see more. They split with or without a food source. And good source being slime on rocks or glass.

 

[FLAdaboy]

Here you go,
"One recently discovered parasite is a tiny starfish (Asterina anomala) that is capable of inflicting as much damage in a closed system as a crown-of-thorns starfish can do to a reef. It never grows larger than three quarters of an inch in diameter, and so can hide inside a coral colony, coming out only at night to feed on the polyps. It is beige to gray or even mottled red, and very hard to see inside a coral. Unlike other starfish it has seven legs, unequal in size. It feeds on small polyp stony corals, soft corals, and large polyp stony corals like Euphyllia and Lobophyllia. It seems to prefer small polyp stony corals Stylophora and Seriatopora, but if they are not present will consume Acropora and even Blastomussa corals."

Reference
Paletta, M. (2001). Reef Tank Nuisances and Controls. SeaScope,18.

 

[Roboson]

How do you only have one? Shine a light in your tank and I bet you see more. They split with or without a food source. And good source being slime on rocks or glass.

It's split once, so there's two. My tank is a nano, with a ton of macro algae, so there isn't the opportunity for them to swell to huge sizes. Or hide. There just isn't enough food between them, my snails, and all my micro-fauna.

 

[Dom]

Okay... so, maybe I DO have a bit too much time on my hands...

Here are some pictures Asterina I fished out of my tank, under a microscope. Interesting. Sorry about the poor quality; I was too lazy to take out the camera so I just shot a few pics with my camera through the eye piece.

I have video; can we upload video here?

 

[Roboson]

What color is your asterina? Dark ones are more likely to go after corals.

 

[Dom]

What color is your asterina? Dark ones are more likely to go after corals.

This one is white and appears to have only 4 legs.

 

[ludnix]

Their number of legs will vary depending on what day you catch them. It's pretty rare to find a perfect 5 legs on asterinas in my experience, they split so frequently they are often halved or less. If I catch one on a coral I throw them out, but most of the time they are eating algae. You can see their clean eaten path on the glass sometimes, so they definitely can eat algae. Some people prefer to have very sterile tanks with no hitch hikers, some love them. It's up you what you want your tank to be like, there's no one correct way to do this hobby. If I invested in frags that were hundreds of dollars a peice I might treat them differently, but personally I can handle an occasional nuisance star in exchange for an army of free algae eaters.