Tiny Star Fish

[fishfan5]

I noticed the smallest of starfish in my 60 gallon tank today..........my tank is 7 mths old and this is the first i have seen of these little things...It is so cute and I was so excited I went immediatly to the internet to research how to best care for it............ i lost my excitement quickly when i discovered that it might not be a good thing after all that maybe this harmless looking little thing might actually eat my corals.....is anyone familar with this and does anyone have any suggestions for me?..............i'd appriciate any advice

 

[blue acara]

you would get a better responce in the reef section for this question

 

[Cupiddog321]

I noticed the smallest of starfish in my 60 gallon tank today..........my tank is 7 mths old and this is the first i have seen of these little things...It is so cute and I was so excited I went immediatly to the internet to research how to best care for it............ i lost my excitement quickly when i discovered that it might not be a good thing after all that maybe this harmless looking little thing might actually eat my corals.....is anyone familar with this and does anyone have any suggestions for me?..............i'd appriciate any advice

I noticed them in my tank too they came from the live rock but I dont have any corrals yet sorry.

 

[Musho3210]

probably asterina starfish (google that). Mine are perfectly fine with all my corals, but there are some stories of them muching on some corals, mostly only zoas.

 

[dilbert]

There are lots of species.

In my pico. I saw once a whitish one with a brown top.

In my nano are a few of these blueish coloured Asterina fools. I always know where they are because they eat the coralline algae and where they are there the rocks have white spots.

So far, the damage is still not that big to become activ ...

My Asterinas came from a rock with button polyps but ate there the coralline only.

 

[ostrow]

There is one known species that will attack SPS corals. It is not known to attack soft corals. Last I read from Dr. Ron Shimek, there was one known occurrence of that species in an aquarium. When they are seen on corals, it is usually after the coral has already died. Asterinas are detritivores. They'll eat leftover food and dead animals in the tank. Odds are absolutely overwhelming that what you have is a good thing to have.

 

[@ombomb]

do you have a photo or a general description of it's appearance?