Identify Starfish

[idisc]

Just got a new piece of live rock and found a few of these starfish with red on them.

Any idea what kind of star this is... I am extremely zoomed in on it...

 

[ndrwater]

Asternia star.
Can be a nusance. Some eat corals, most eat algae. The often reproduce at an alarming rate.
Personally, I would remove it.

 

[Nibejeebies]

Those are the same type of asterina that ate my helio fungia.... Play it safe... Get it out of the tank...

 

[Roboson]

They're omnivores and mostly eat algae. However, they need lots of it to survive and in a clean tank with little film algae, they may turn to to corals out of starvation. Typically the darker kind are the ones that go rouge, but white ones have been seen to also eat corals (especially damaged or less than thriving ones).

Personally I have several in my nano/frag tank and I've never had issues. That said, my tank is far from the pristine conditions that are required for SPS corals and so they manage to find their own food easily enough without going after my softies and LPS.