Starfish found

[Brian Vartanian]

i found this starfish scooting around in my tank, he seems lively and healthy since he has lived for so long, what kind of starfish is he, and does he eat just algae?

 

[Fluff]

It looks like you have an Asterina starfish. Most of them are harmless algae grazers.

 

[dorian965]

do they eat coraline?

 

[Fluff]

No, film algae mostly. The only time you should worry is if you have sps corals in the tank. Some will eat the flesh from sps.

 

[GinaD]

bat star maybe

Could be a bat star since it has more than 5 legs
and looks a lot like the one's I've seen in the
Encyclopedia of Marine Inverts by Jerry G. Walls.
According to this book, sea bats usually have 8 legs,
but some of his pics have one's with 7. I have two
extremely tiny one's in my tank - one with 7 and one with 8 legs.

Fluff is most likely right , as reefkeeping.com confirms, but I thought I'd throw out another possiblity.

Here's one pic from the book:

 

[Brian Vartanian]

thanks guys

 

[localhost]

I have one of those. Supposedly they reproduce by dropping legs that will develop their own bodies and legs. Mine was a perfect 6 legged creature that I see only once a week. One week I saw him with just 3 legs and 3 little stubs growing out. More recently I saw him and his replacement legs are almost fully grown back now. I've never seen the others though, if they even exist.

 

[dorian965]

i started with naticing one about 2 months ago. i know have three that i have seen. all of them seem to have split right at the stomach and are moving around quite well. i think it will be wise to remove them soon.

 

[stainless_wm]

I have the same thing, I just noticed him yesterday. This is a pic of his underside. (he is on the glass) But his topside looks the same. How big will they get? Will they over run the tank?

 

[Fluff]

They don't get much bigger than what you see. As for taking over the tank, mine never has. They will flourish or fail depending on food sources in the tank.