Evening everyone. I just discovered this little guy climbing up the glass. I'm thinking it's some kind of sea star. Just don't know if I should leave it be or find him and remove it. It's the only one I've found so far.
Trying to identify this little guy
- Thread starter BionicReef73
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Definitely an Asterina starfish. You find mixed advice on them. I personally like them, others say they are soft coral (Zoas in particular) eating monsters. I think there are different types, white ones are usually harmless. Remove with tweezers when they start multiplying too rapidly for your tastes.
And there’s never only one
Like said above. I have had issues with them ive pulled them from zoa and found little holes where the starfish was. So some maybe all I don't know will eat zoas. Seems like I never found a all white one doing it always seemed to be motley grey ones. Are they different maybe or do they change color when they start eating corals. I got a pair of harlequin shrimp to handle my issues. The shrimp work great and they are cool looking and funny to watch kinda like a buff sexy shrimp. But they make really fast work of even the biggest population. That's all they eat are stars. So no more stars they die or like me you start buying the thing you want to be rid of.....lol. I'd do it again in a heart beat. They were so much fun to watch. I had mine for three years. No idea what their life span is or how old they were when I got them. I kinda looked at the life span of cleaner shrimp and said that's probably about right.
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Asterina starfish with a few limbs missing. They don't do good, nor harm, but if conditions are right for them they can be invasive.
If it's a question of friend or foe, I would remove them before your environment favors foe.
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