Random starfish found in my aquarium?!

[Colin Gilboy]

so I had just bought a hammer coral, clown goby, peppermint shrimp and my local store gave me a coral skeleton so my goby could stay in since that is one of their favorite places to stay, and all of a sudden I come home from work and I saw this little guy in my tank! Since then I have not seen him, moved all the rock around seached through it and all. I haven’t moved any sand yet. Any advice on how to find him and better yet feed it? (I couldn’t identify the type of star it was so if anyone knows, let me know!)

 

[Crabs McJones]

Asterina starfish. Very common hitchiker. Generally harmless but can multiply very quickly if not kept in check you dont really need to feed them, that's one way their numbers get out of hand they'll survive

 

[Colin Gilboy]

Asterina starfish. Very common hitchiker. Generally harmless but can multiply very quickly if not kept in check you dont really need to feed them, that's one way their numbers get out of hand they'll survive

Thank you so much!

 

[SPR1968]

I’ve got/had a plague of them and they have been eating corals in particular green star polyps. They have destroyed a very large colony and our now onto the next one.

They have also eaten some SPS were they were sat until i removed them.

Certainly the asterina starfish type I have are coral killers and I’m having to remove them both manually and with a harlequin shrimp.

And welcome to R2R by the way as well!

 

[adtravels]

Colored ones can be more problematic, potential coral eaters. I have the white grey ones and they eat coralline algae.

 

[Colin Gilboy]

I’ve got/had a plague of them and they have been eating corals in particular green star polyps. They have destroyed a very large colony and our now onto the next one.

They have also eaten some SPS were they were sat until i removed them.

Certainly the asterina starfish type I have are coral killers and I’m having to remove them both manually and with a harlequin shrimp.

And welcome to R2R by the way as well!

Thank you!

 

[Colin Gilboy]

Colored ones can be more problematic, potential coral eaters. I have the white grey ones and they eat coralline algae.

I’ll see how it goes for a while and see what I can do about it. Thank you!

 

[Fritzhamer]

Every tank I’ve ever had, had them and I’ve never seen a plague or epidemic of them. There is usually one visible at any given time in my tank. I’ve never seen them bother corals.

 

[Billdogg]

Every tank I’ve ever had, had them and I’ve never seen a plague or epidemic of them. There is usually one visible at any given time in my tank. I’ve never seen them bother corals.

^^^This^^^

I have had times when a tank will have more than I would like. When that happens I just spread them around to my other tanks. I've never had any harm anything important either. They can eat all the corraline they want.

 

[Richie27]

They can become a problem if so harlequin shrimp will eat them right up and get rid of them

 

[Jet915]

Yeah, I found one in my tank as well and after reading about them "possibly" eating coral, I took it out of the tank immediately.

 

[Simply__J]

4 words. Kill it with fire!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Every tank I’ve ever had, had them and I’ve never seen a plague or epidemic of them. There is usually one visible at any given time in my tank. I’ve never seen them bother corals.

^^^This^^^

I have had times when a tank will have more than I would like. When that happens I just spread them around to my other tanks. I've never had any harm anything important either. They can eat all the corraline they want.

+1

I like um. They seem to clean up detritus, and may munch on coralline. Other than that completely harmless.

 

[nfrench2100]

Every tank I’ve ever had, had them and I’ve never seen a plague or epidemic of them. There is usually one visible at any given time in my tank. I’ve never seen them bother corals.

Same here

 

[vetteguy53081]

Asrerina star. Sometimes deemed harmless but can be destructive in eating zoas and even acro. I have a harlequin shrimp in my tank just in case for these guys.

Old saying : IF IN DOUBT. . . . CHUCK IT OUT !! "