What do i do? This a pest?

[PhamousPhish]

I will be removing my rockscape from this tank which idk if its even cycled and putting it into my new tank that will be delivered soon. I have found these on my current tanks glass. Are these a pest and what should I do?
I want to remove the rock scape from this current tank and put it in the new one. I will be using new water and sand in the new tank but worried that my rocks are infected...
I did get some rock from a local reefer that was established with zoas on it. I didn't cycle or acclimate it. I just threw it in there. They are still alive. Should I remove my rock scape and let it sit in sun or something for a couple days?
Again, im gonna remove all my rock and put into my new tank when it arrives. I will be selling this current one.

 

[Rocks reef]

Those are asterina. Harmless. You can remove the ones you see if you like, but there is no need to.

 

[F i s h y]

I no longer say they are a harmless hitch hiker. There are lots of opinions out there. What i can tell you is my personal experience. I have multiple species of them in my tank. I have some that eat zoas, and i have some that are eating the flesh bands on my torches and hammers. I have been manually removing them and i have harlequin shrimp, but in a 400 gallon system it is impossible to get them all out at this time i think. i would have never allowed them in the first place if i knew then what i know now.

 

[Fish Fan]

Agreed, Asterina stars. There's many different species and some are harmless detrivores, and some indeed seem to eat corals. I think some care is warranted, but don't sun-bleach the rocks, you'd harm a lot of the beneficial stuff too. I believe harlequin shrimp will eat these stars, which would be one way to try to deal with them, but you would need to target feed or rehome the shrimp once the Asterina are gone as they are a specialist feeder.

Here's a bit from Tidal Gardens on these stars:
"

Asterina Starfish

There are a lot of varieties of this type of starfish. Most of them are harmless, but most people don’t like them because they reproduce quickly and show up on the glass, blocking the view. Biologically they are also harmless because they just feed off of film and stuff like that.

However, there are some varieties, typically larger and more brown in color whereas most of the other kinds are white, that will just latch onto certain kinds of corals and eat them. Usually I see them on certain types of SPS corals like Pocillopora and Stylophora, but I have also seen them climb on top of and eat zoa polyps.

Again, you may see this starfish behavior that is fairly innocuous and they are just looking for that film, but I have definitely seen some monster starfish that have eaten a polyp or two.

Any dip will remove this starfish, and physical removal is also pretty easy."
https://tidalgardens.com/articles/coral-care-articles/zoanthus-troubleshooting.html
Good luck!

 

[PhamousPhish]

Man so many mixed reviews on to remove or not. I read somewhere it eats algae. That would be nice. However I dont care about this tank as ill be taking it down. But I do care about the rocks. If im moving all rocks from the tank into new one is there anything I need to do prior? How about with my friends rock that was given to me which prolly brought this hitchhiker?

 

[PhamousPhish]

Since they came from the rock with zoas does that mean its safe to say that they don't eat zoas since the zoas seem fine? Should I be worried about future coral and zoas i add later down the line?

 

[kevgib67]

The picture looks like the white harmless ones. I have them in my tank and they don’t bother anything and just eat film algae on the rocks and glass. I got my rock from a friend’s Fowler sump and were there for a couple decades. No light and no algae so they had to come on one or more frag plug. In my opinion, if you bleach your rock, eventually you will get them again. If they were the coral eating type I would suggest you bleach your rock but I don’t think this is the case. I’ve had them in every tank in 20 years of reefing. What ever you decide you’ll be fine.

 

[PhamousPhish]

Ill keep em and maybe they'll join me in my new tank

 

[Crimsonphoenix]

Reef safe with caution… some species are fine some are not.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I used to think they were cool. Free starfish right? I’ve caught them eating coral, but I can’t say I’ve seen them eating healthy corals, however…… they multiply like crazy and the ones you see on your glass are only half. They camouflage into your rocks and are hard to see. Everytime I do a water change I suck out about 20-30 of them.