A Starfish!

[leesst200]

Hi all,

I have a Starfish from my live rock, which has been in for 7 days now. I saw it yesterday and has been around the tank all day today.
It is a white/cream colour but seems to have a leg missing:eek:.
Its about 10mm in size, maybe a bit smaller.

The chap at my lfs said i will probably have crabs in the rock too.
How likley is this?

[Sploke]

Kind of an inexperienced guess but looks like an asterina star? I've heard they will munch through colonies of zoas so something to watch for if you have corals.

[Reefscape]

Yes, thats an asterina star...people have had mixed experiences with them..all depends on the type...

Have a read through the following thread where people leave a little bit of their experiences with them...

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121374&highlight=asterina

Niko

[Grins]

Agreed...and psst they multiply by diving so the leg missing probably means that there is at least one more in there. They multiply rapidly.

[sapgranth25]

I`ve had theses come in on a button polyps/zoas of mine & can confirm but they eat zoas/star polyps not as fast as NUD`S but still a pest best to get rid of if you have corals or intend to get them in the future as they soon multiply

[clown-lover]

yeah you can tell when they are ready to divide because all of their legs will be the same length. If they are uneven you can almost bet you have another in your tank like Grins said.

[Pufferpunk]

ASTERINA STARFISH (http://zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=1426)