Baby Starfish

[noone]

I just looked into my tank and saw a baby starfish! Where could it have come from? It is small (really small) and gray, like my sand sifter. (I think it might be a baby sand sifter.) Where could it have come from? I haven't added any lr lately. Could my sand sifter have had a baby? There is only one though. (Is that even possible?)

(Time Lapse)

I just finished doing a top off of the water, and I can't find him! He was moving when I was cleaning the algae off of the back. Now he is nowhere to be seen! I am worried. Should I be? Is this normal? Could he be buried under the sand or hiding in the lr? I hope nothing ate him. The only things in my tank are my sand sifter, my clown, 3 mini hermits (little crabs), and him. Sorry for the poor post. I was excited, and now am worried! TIA!

 

[XXFirefighter]

YA RELAX...
If he's buried he'll come out and if he's someones dinner ti was good...
Notihng you can do...

 

[noone]

Just an update...

Well the baby isn't really a baby. We went to the lfs today and they said that they are just starfish that will come on your lr. They don't really do anything beneficial, or harmful for that matter. They will eat your corals though. I don't have any and don't plan to have any. They said that they can get to be the size of a quarter. They had some in one of their tanks and we asked if they sold them (they are so darn cute!) they said no. The gave us some anyways. I now have a total of 8 in my tank. Some of them have six legs though. (Is that abnormal in starfish?) They are all present and accounted for except for one, who must be hiding in my lr. Some of them are impossibly tiny!

 

[i have crabs]

i got a little 6 legged one when i bought a coral a few months back sounds like u said a small sand sifter but isnt.
in the 2-3 months i now have 3-5 of them from them splitting and have never caused and problems to my corals of anything else they just pop up every once in a while

cute little buggers though the wife loves them wich helps with the fish budget

 

[XXFirefighter]

I got two of em with my clam... you can see him living on him.. it's gone now, haven't seen him since and nothing wrong with any of my corals !

 

[psychictentacle]

I got some of them on my LR, and they've been fragmenting and growing. At first I saw only one, and then I began to see them show up with more regularity. I came to this website, as a matter of fact, in my attempt to research what kind of starfish they were and whether they posed a threat to my lr. I am still left with very little knowledge, as to their species. However, my experience with them has proven that they've been no apparent threat to my LR. My starfish look like the one on the penny, and have only 5 legs.

Starfish reproduce both sexually and asexually (through fission). And, rarely, does a 5 rayed (legged) starfish develop into a 6 rayed (legged) starfish, of its own accord. (Only those produced at the Chernobyl starfish hatcheries - ok, that was a joke) So, unless this 6 rayed (legged) starfish (above) is in the process of fission, the two starfish are NOT the same, in which case my experience with starfish in my tank MAY NOT be the same, with regard to a LR threat.