Starfish, pest or pleasure?

[Jay1661]

Hey all, walked into my living room and noticed this little guy on the glass. I have no clue how he got in there, tank is a month old, maybe he came in on my Zoa frag but not sure how I wouldn’t have seen it. Anyways I know nothing about starfish, I briefly remember reading about Asternia stars and how they harm zoas, this is a problem for me because I plan on having quite a few zoas eventually.

Basically just want to know is this starfish harmful and should I get rid of it now before I end up with more?

 

[Palyzoa]

Asterina star fish. Very common and mostly harmless. Some people say they eat corals but I haven't had an issue with them. They can multiply quickly tho.

 

[sfin52]

Keep an eye on them.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

I agree with above, watch them. We have some in our tank that love to eat our utter chaos and some that like coraline algae. They all look the same so you can't tell which ones are bad and which ones are good. Every morning when I turn on the lights I go in with tweezers and remove them. Once they populate it's impossible to remove them all but I do that to keep them in check and remove the ones I see near our zoas and palys.

 

[JaimeAdams]

There are over 40 species in the genus, which isn't even Asterina anymore. It has been re-classified. I said for years what many people say that they are harmless and don't bother anything. That was prior to watching them eat coral. I would without a doubt remove them since they will split and spread.

 

[Somuchflo99]

Pretty cool little creatures I did some research of my own when I found out I had one come to find out they split like and anemone and clone them self’s I forget who but I posted about it not long ago and one member found one about 2 inches in size before he removed it