weird hitchiker

[Jman]

Got some new clowns today... While acclimating them with the lights off all of the nocturnals came out. After we truned the lights back on there was a 'core' of a starfish on the LR. The legs are all but gone 'they may be growing back' It's about an inch across.
Went to get the camera and it was gone!

This is freaking me out. Can this thing make it without legs. We've had the rock for over a month so I don't know how else it could have gotten in there.

 

[Decz]

what color was it? any other descriptive details?

 

[mogurnda]

My serpent star had all its legs eaten off, and managed to grow them back. It wasn't very agile without them, though.

Sounds like maybe some kind of urchin.

Edit: Here's a pincushion urchin from google. Similar?

 

[benjen]

The blue tuxedo can look even more like a starfish sans legs than some other pincushions...

I'm not aware of any pincushions that eat crustaceans, but could this have anything to do with him losing his hermit crabs?

 

[Jman]

It was whitish.
it looked like the underside of a sand sifter...but that was the part that was up. I looked for it with the flashlight last night but no dice.

Looked nothing like the pics you've posted.

 

[storrsms]

How many 'legs' did it have- this sounds like maybe a microstar,
or if it has 6 legs you may want to do some reading as these are said to be baddies (not sure if for corals or what else?)- also was it knd of mis-shapen, some 'legs' stumpier than others? as I have seen these in my setups, and have seen no ill effects on any of my corals or fish.

Mark

 

[OrionGirl]

The little white stars that have a varying number of legs are not all bad. There are 2-3 kinds, some of which will go after corals or fish. But, rather than remove them, observe for a while. Most of these little guys are grazers, and will really help reduce algae issues.