otisbooard
New Member
started a small 50l marine tank a few weeks ago, only have a hermit crab and a brittlestar which I added yesterday and today I found these two that were not in the tank. Are they baby brittlestars?
brittlestars
- Thread starter otisbooard
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AlyciaMarie
Where's my anemone?
+1.
Sophie"s mom
Valuable Member
Yep! Asterina for sure! And from what little I know about them, they can be bad if you have, or will have corals! But honestly I do not know a lot about them. Hopefully someone else who does will come in and comment.
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Some like 'em, some don't. I had a plethora of them in my old tank. They can act as a part of CUC. I'm not convinced they harm corals as I never saw them acosting mine over the years they were in my tank.
Astrina. I have heard of some them eating zoas. I have them in all of my tanks without issue. If they get to the point they cover the glass I'll scrape them off with a net. Don't let them get between the glass and algae scraper.
OP
OP
otisbooard
New Member
They just hitchhike in. Everything in your tank you put in there, and with most hitchhikers you may not know you even did it....
shakacuz
hang loose, cuz
frag plug, or rocks from someone else's tank.
william Lutman
Active Member
mdpitts
Active Member
I ended up with one of those when I got my very first frag. It is a common hitchhiker. They multiply by dropping a "leg" and it's kind of rare to see one with all their legs from my experience. I don't mind them. I have lots of softies like Zoanthids and they don't bother them. I think they eat algae on the glass so more power to them. It's easy to remove them if you don't want them. I think they look like the ocean.
I have quite a few in my tank. I find them eating algae, so I don’t worry overmuch. That being said, some types will apparently attack coral, so they bear watching.
