Asterina starfish

[fancy_fish101]

I have encountered a asterina starfish as a hitchhiker, should I put it in the tank or get ride of it? I’ve seen some keep and some get ride but not 100% what to do.

 

[Kathy Floyd]

Most people say they multiply. I have one and it hasn't multiplied. I love him. He doesn't harm anything.

 

[Tamberav]

I love mine... mine do multiply but because I have enough algae for them... they are always eating algae... yum yum! I just siphon some out in water changes to cull them. I can probably see 50 of them right now since lights are out... they don't come out in the day much so not really an eyesore. I have not scraped the glass in a weekish so they are all over it having dinner.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

It’s really a personal preference thing at this point. Some people consider them pests either because the stars tend to reproduce super fast or because they believe the stars eat corals (I’ve only seen convincing evidence of this for a very dark colored Aquilonastra species, not for the usual light colored ones - the light colored ones have more evidence that they’re harmless/beneficial than that they’re bad, but there are a lot of Aquilonastra species, so it’s possible a couple of them eat corals).

Personally, I like them, and I’d say to add them to the tank.

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Another cuc there fine I have like 50 in my tank don't hurt anything

 

[bnord]

I've never seen rapid multiplication, but they do increase in numbers, but in my tanks not fast enough that I couldn't pick them out

 

[Shibaken3]

i would say no

 

[V A R I A N T]

 

[Waters]

If you see one, you have 10 lol. I would pull them out as you see them on the glass during maintenance just to keep them in check. They multiply by dropping arms......and they have a lot of arms.

 

[G Santana]

I had 1 18 months ago, I remember when he came into the tank, I didn't think much of it, today I have hundreds lol. They don't bother anything but at some point in time SOON I will have to address the sheer numbers.
I'm thinking what better reason than to get a Harlequin shrimp lol.