Is this a starfish??

Doug

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Hi all, fairly new to marine... Im trying to work out if i got a starfish hitchhiker with my live rock... Is this a very small starfish on my tank??

zypege3a.jpg
 
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Doug

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Next question.... Is it bad? Should I remove it?? Or should I look after it?
 

Elysium

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Next question.... Is it bad? Should I remove it?? Or should I look after it?

Some are good and some are bad. I have a bunch of the little white mouthed ones like yours and they like the algae on the glass. I've had no problems in my tank.
 
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Doug

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Wheyyy... Thats alright then...

Do they stay tiny or do they grow? As said Im new to marine tanks, so my knowledge is pretty much zero... I even had some coral on a bit of live rock that seems to be a freebie, once again I feel I should ask... What is this??

uhu2e9a5.jpg
 

Pkunk35

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Some are good and some are bad. I have a bunch of the little white mouthed ones like yours and they like the algae on the glass. I've had no problems in my tank.

+1 i think they are normally fine if not in excessive numbers. Some have been known to be coralivores however and personally I had asterinas that were killing off coralline algae because their numbers were so great that they would block the light from the coralline.

Edit: Just saw your other post, I think those are star polyps.
 

RichieT

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Personally I hate them. They crawl over my zoas and cause irritation. Never seen them eat the zoa just annoy them. I remove them when I can
 

Elysium

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Definitely looks like your freebies are clove polyps. However that cluster of 5 heads where the corraline algae ends in the middle, has a sixth smaller head that looks suspisciously like aiptasia.

Both of these are likely a bigger threat to your tank in the long run. :p
 
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Doug

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Made me jump then... It would appear that was a piece of stray prawn - just tried to feed and after a double triple check deffo none of that aptasia stuff!!!
 

ReeferBean

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Yep green star polyps. Although nice at first they can take over and smother other corals. After a while you may not like them. As for the asterinas, I agree with most everyone else. I think its more they irritate corals looking for algae rather than actually eating them.

If they get to be huge numbers you can get a harlequin shrimp, as that is all they eat, starfish.
 
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Doug

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Well so far I only have that coral, the clowns, the anenome and 5 or 6 hermits (tiny) oh.... And a starfish :/
 

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