Starfish ID...

[reefrunner69]

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.

[reefrunner69]

Oh yeah, the starfish are about .5"-1" from the tip of oe leg to the other...

[Bang Guy]

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

[Alf]

RR what did you find out if any thing?

[reefrunner69]

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....