Should I be concerned? Blue starfish

[ChickReef]

Hello,

So I’ve noticed these blue star fish on this coral specifically. I first it was one semi big blue one and it disappeared and now it’s a bunch of small ones. Is this a pest? Will this kill off my coral?

 

[Formulator]

Asterina stars. The colored variety you have may or may not be a problem. They reproduce very quickly, so it might be best to remove now if there are only a few. They are nocturnal so the best time to hunt them is at night. Or get a harlequin shrimp. Or just let them go and see. I really like the white/tan variety which never hurt anything.

 

[Lavey29]

Those are cool

 

[ChickReef]

I’ll try to see at night if I can spot more of them. Thank you!

 

[Formulator]

If you do keep them, be prepared for a LOT of them. Some people don’t like them, but personally I loved them in my tank. My wife called them her “little chip babies”, I guess because they are the size of chocolate chips…not to be confused with the chocolate chip starfish LOL

You can see them all over my overflow and glass in this photo from a few years ago. Unfortunately they all perished in a major tank crash since then.