What is this little ?

[Juscuziam]

Hello all, new to this forum and saltwater aquariums. I bought a Coralife 32 with uv filter, protein skimmer. I added live sand a week ago and today I added some live rock. After arranging it i noticed this little guy on the glass, looks like he may have lost a few legs but still moving around. Is it a star fish of some kind ?


Cant seem to find out how to post pics

Hes olive green size of a dime has five arms with barbs on them and on the glass you can see his mouth....any ideas

 

[PDR]

Welcome to R2R! There is a button on the bottom right, next to "post reply" that should allow you to upload a picture.

 

[Muttley000]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like an asterina star possibly. If so you will get answers somewhere between doomsday and no problem (as is with many things in this hobby lol). I have never had a problem with them in my system. Around my 500ish gallons I see one every few weeks cruising the glass. There are some that are coral eaters apparently, or if you have too many nutrients they can multiply rapidly. Good luck and when you figure out how to post pics a build thread would be awesome!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Does it look like a small version of this?

If it does, it a brittle star. They are very small when born and can get up to about 10 or 12 inches when fully grown. And some/many here will tell you if this is what it looks like and it's green, it may be a danger to small fish. But the truth is, all brittle stars (with spines on the arms) and serpent stars (look the same but no spines) can be dangerous to small and slow moving fish. But I have a 40 cube with 8 to 10 stars in it and none of my small fish have had any problems.