Starfish ID...

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reefrunner69

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
May 16, 2002
Messages
1,663
Location
Cedar Key, FL
Any ideas? I found a couple of these on my live rock tonight, in light of my leathers problems, I am considering them predatory and bad, until they are proven otherwise...They are living with the mantis shrimp at this point.

star1.jpg


star4.jpg
 
Hey Reefrunner,

There are several species of starfish that look identically to yours. The only easy way to get a positive ID is to observe their feeding behavior.

One eats detritus
One eats Diatoms
A few eat bacteria
A few eat SPS polyps

I think you should watch it closely before making a decision. I hope it's one of the good ones because yours is missing an arm. This means that it has reproduced.

Guy
 
Aside from what Guy posted here and what Teri posted on RAG, I have found out that my mantis won't eat them....yet. I have only found the two, after removing them, I will wait and keep looking for more. If I find more and nothing appears to be disturbed or eaten by them, I'll probably leave them be. My biggest concern is that they could become a pest from simple numbers alon. The first one had already dropped a leg, when I looked in the mantis tank a couple of days later, one of them had dropped three legs after being moved....
 
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