Starfish Identification

[Aronsaquarium]

Can anyone identify my starfish?
I’m trying to figure out compatibility after I saw it trying to feast on my Zoa.
All I got from my LFS is that it’s a “Misc African Starfish” or something like that

 

[Goby Bryant]

I don’t know, but nice blow pops.

 

[WheatToast]

@livinlifeinBKK
@AydenLincoln

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I will try to identify and doubt it'll be too difficult to identify due to the little spikes on its back (those usually point to it being non reef safe btw)

 

[Fishy888]

I will try to identify and doubt it'll be too difficult to identify due to the little spikes on its back (those usually point to it being non reef safe btw)

I was going to say that while I can't remember the name I heard they were decidedly not reef safe.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I got nothing right now but let me do some research/ask around.

 

[Goby Bryant]

Honeycomb sea star?

 

[Goby Bryant]

One of the darker variations

 

[AydenLincoln]

Honeycomb sea star?

That’s so many stars though too many lol.

 

[Goby Bryant]

A darker version

 

[WheatToast]

Why’d you put a wow on my honeycomb star post?

I've never heard of that sea star, plus it has some pretty wicked color variations!

 

[Goby Bryant]

Yeah. Some of them look very similar though

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Honeycomb sea star?

Pentaceraster alveolatus is a good guess. It does appear to be a Pentaceraster sp. of some kind, but I don't know that I'd feel comfortable saying it's this or that species for certain. Some of the ones that seem more likely to me are P. alveolatus, P. multispinus, and P. regulus. - P. cumingi, P. mammilatus, and P. tuberculatus can also occasionally look similar to this too though.

 

[AydenLincoln]

It’s definitely some type of pentaceraster but that’s over 20 stars to be exact. These stars are hard to identify from photos because the same exact species comes in a variety of colors. So pentaceraster is the only thing I and the leading taxonomist of echinoderms can tell you because to quote them “pictures don’t typically work to identify this species of genus.” In terms of diet. I’d target feed him meaty foods such as clams and krill. A majority of them are carnivores or omnivores and not reef safe. It’s also worth nothing these stars grow fairly big (around 8 inches) so a big aquarium ideally 50 gallons (if not more) is needed to house them longterm and allow for them to grow to their full size.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

Thank you all so much!!
I figured he’s probably not reef safe when I caught it in the act last night with its stomach out on my Zoas :/

Are they safe with any corals?
and yes I feed it krill once a week, but maybe I’m not feedback my often enough

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thank you all so much!!
I figured he’s probably not reef safe when I caught it in the act last night with its stomach out on my Zoas :/

Are they safe with any corals?
and yes I feed it krill once a week, but maybe I’m not feedback my often enough

To my knowledge, not really.

However, the only Pentaceraster sp. I'm aware of that they have confirmed the diet of is P. cumingi, which was described as a "specialist invertivore-herbivorous species"* feeds primarily on filamentous macroalgae (Ulva spp., Polysiphonia spp., etc.), but was also seen feeding on sediment (presumably either to eat biofilms or to ingest microfauna/microalgae), diatoms, crustose coralline algae, the pencil urchin Eucidaris galapagensis, sessile invertebrates, and, rarely, crustose algae. The bulk of it's diet appears to come from macroalgae and sediment feeding (~75%, as best as I can tell), but feeding on inverts was not uncommon (the inverts fed on just didn't make up as big of a part of the stars' diets).

It is suspected but not confirmed that these stars actually feed on the biofilms on the macroalgae, rather than the algae itself, but - to my knowledge - no study has been done to confirm one way or the other (these sorts of things are actually quite difficult to study).

* My source:

Distribution and feeding ecology of sea stars in the Galápagos rocky subtidal zone

Sea stars (class Asteroidea) can play powerful and wide-ranging roles as consumers of algae and other prey in benthic ecosystems worldwide. In the Gal…

www.sciencedirect.com

 

[EricR]

That "on the zoas" picture made me cringe.
Had a chocolate chip star for 2 years before corals.
Coexisted with zoas for about 6 months before getting his first taste and, after that, it was game over -- had to donate him.
*I knew the risks but let it play out for a bit anyway ... oops

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

To my knowledge, not really.

However, the only Pentaceraster sp. I'm aware of that they have confirmed the diet of is P. cumingi, which was described as a "specialist invertivore-herbivorous species"* feeds primarily on filamentous macroalgae (Ulva spp., Polysiphonia spp., etc.), but was also seen feeding on sediment (presumably either to eat biofilms or to ingest microfauna/microalgae), diatoms, crustose coralline algae, the pencil urchin Eucidaris galapagensis, sessile invertebrates, and, rarely, crustose algae. The bulk of it's diet appears to come from macroalgae and sediment feeding (~75%, as best as I can tell), but feeding on inverts was not uncommon (the inverts fed on just didn't make up as big of a part of the stars' diets).

It is suspected but not confirmed that these stars actually feed on the biofilms on the macroalgae, rather than the algae itself, but - to my knowledge - no study has been done to confirm one way or the other (these sorts of things are actually quite difficult to study).

* My source:

Distribution and feeding ecology of sea stars in the Galápagos rocky subtidal zone

Sea stars (class Asteroidea) can play powerful and wide-ranging roles as consumers of algae and other prey in benthic ecosystems worldwide. In the Gal…

www.sciencedirect.com

If you wanted to try some corals with these guys, I’d recommend something like a Pocillopora or Acropora coral with a Trapezia sp. crab or two to guard it. Basically any coral that you can find hosting crabs or pistol shrimp may be your best bet, as the little inverts living in the coral have been shown to be able to deter sea star predation on their host corals.

Trapezia. sp. crabs are also readily available in the hobby, so it wouldn’t be too difficult or expensive to try.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

Thanks so much!
Thankfully it was just a small group of Zoas, I got them as a test to see if my angles or Valentini would eat them.
Didn’t think about m star :/

it only took him 3 days to find the zoas