What is this

[warhorseart]

Crawling on the glass of my nano reef, kill it or leave it?

 

[Leonardo7689]

Looks like asterina starfish. There is mixed info about them. Some say they're harmless and some say they are not reef safe at all

 

[54seaweed]

they get a taste for zoa's over time
they multiply fast also so if you can remove it I would do so now
I lost over 1/2 a reef from these stupid stars

 

[czwicky]

If they have color to them kill em. If they are pure white they are harmless and will eat detritus

 

[carey]

I have hundreds of those things among all my tanks and have never had issues with them. When I do see one on occasion it always makes me smile. lol not sure why, maybe cause it's something so small that lives in a tank that I didnt buy and it's surviving well, kinda like a baby, it just makes me happy inside.

 

[bskerrichard27]

Some eat the desired purple algae in your tank ,I have them also I pick about 10- 15 a week out of my tank I've not seen them eat my coral but they do eat the purple algae and leave white spots all over the rock ..

 

[Freak1456]

I have had problems with them also. Both the white ones and the colored ones. They will multiply like crazy and when there is nothing left to eat they die and nuke your tank.

 

[carey]

Asterina starfish will not "nuke" a tank. you would have to have thousands all die at once to see any effect whatsoever.

I have hundreds of these guys in all my tanks and they bother nothing. They tend to climb the glass when the lights are off which is pretty much the only time I see them. lol

 

[Freak1456]

In my nano they came in on a piece of coral or live rock and decimated my coralline algae population. Like Bskerrichard said they left little white spots on it till there was nothing left. They would be on my zoa's causing them to close up. Not sure if they were eating them or just irritating them. I wild also pick out 30 or 40 a week. The only thing that got them under control was not having anymore coralline to eat.




After they cleared my back glass.






New growth after the tied off

 

[Freak1456]

~*died*