Two Baby Starfish!! How is this Possible?
 

I was feeding my fish this morning and noticed a tiny baby starfish on the glass and then another. How is this possible? I haven't had a starfish for at least a year. I read they can reproduce asexually but would it take that long for one to grow. They seem to be white with sort of a pink colour on its back. I love finding new things in my tank! Anyone else have baby starfish ever?

Leanne

Those are probably Asterina starfish. ie. harmless hitchhikers. They are in most reef tanks. I have dozens if not hundreds.

This is what Asterina's look like. Harmless in small numbers. Tonnes of tanks have them.

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Unless you want 100's I'd remove the 2 in your tank now. Just an idea.

they don't hurt anything

Yes, that would be them. I gather they stay that small.

They do tend to stay that small so yours are likly not babies, if you can see them :-)

They hitchhike on just about anything that you bring into your tank.

They are supposedly a predator that will eat zoas and certain acros. I had them as well but a harlequinn shrimp munched them all away. I did not see any ill effects from them. There is more people that say they are good over those that say they are bad.:noidea:

small starfish
 

I started removing those after I saw them eating my coralline algea.

Amongst Asterina Stars you will find species that only eat algae, and species that will eat coral
I kept removing the ones I found in my sump, but they eventually found their way into my DT
Their numbers are growing, but I only ever see them on LR and the glass so I'm not worried about predation, and they probably help keep my LR clean (is what I keep telling myself)

If they leave your corals alone, you only need to decide whether or not you can live with large amounts of them as they multiply

Not harmless. I let them outa control once. Had 1000s. Killed all my zoos.

Every time that my zoas have been closed for a couple days I used to dip them and sure enough one or two of those guys would come out

Thats why I said harmless in small numbers there slugger! :lol:

I've never had mine reach "plague" numbers and almost always see a few to a few dozen on the glass. I must have the algae-eating variety, since never found them to pose any danger to my zoas or other corals [knock on wood]:biggrin:

Anything that gets into the 1000s in our tanks would cause a major problem I would imagine. A few bristleworms, good for scavenging uneaten foods. Thousands of them make touching anything in your tank a major hazard. Even certain types of corals. I love pulsing xenia but if they reach into the 1000s, then they are a weed that smother everything else and turns your tank "brown".

As with most things in life, moderation is better than overwhelming amounts.

Anthony

Thanks for all the input. I hate to kill them. They are so cute! But don't really want them to over take my tank either.

There are two different species of asterina's if you research them further.

From what I've read, the 5 legged variety are perfectly reef safe.

The 6 legged versions are your zoa and star polyp eaters

When two starfish love each other a whole bunch...

My approach with anything is leave it alone unless it becomes a problem. They're not real fast, so if you have to remove them, it's easy enough. I have hundreds of them, never an issue.

My kids and I love those little starfish! Sometimes you find odd ball ones with 3 legs or 7 legs! They're fun like that. Plus there's always an endless supply of them, unlike the larger starfish.

in deed, some of them **** off zoanthids enough so that they close and melt away.

I don't have many of them but when ever I see one on a zoanthid polyp I remove it from my tank.

But the large amphipods are probably those who ate your zoanthids. They come out at night and chew on the zoanthids. Check ou at night if you have them on your zoanthids.

It was a multi quote. :twised:

Trust me. It was the stars. They either ate them or smothered them out.

And to add to that... They also block light on SPS. I was constantly basting my sps. They would leave white patches on the tissue.


At night with lights off... You could easily find 300+ on the glass àlone. Not counting what you could see covering the rocks. Once you get too many. The algae supply runs lower. Then they go after other things.

It matters not to me what others do with their tanks. The debate on safe or not is only for those who don't know the damage they can do first hand.

So go ahead. Debate. But if you want to make sure, take them out.

Everyone told me they were safe too.

Good luck !

Well, I counted legs and I have 6 legs on my starfish and I have to say two of my zoa's are already not looking too happy so I think that I will have to go on a starfish hunt. Thanks for all the info.

Leanne

I have a ton of these in my tank too always thought they were harmless. Never could figure out why my zoos always disappear on me now I'm sure this is the reason but how does a guy get rid of in the high hundreds of these? Will they hit up mushroom colonies too? As zoos and mushrooms always disappear in my 180g reef and my other corals all grow like crazy. Help thanks.


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Harlequinn shrimp will eat them. But once they are gone you will have to feed the shrimp starfish as thats all they eat. Or take it back to the store you purchased it from. It'll starve to death.

Ok thanks but will the shrimp eat my brittle stars and blue linka?


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Yes, and yes.

I have done some reading on the blue linkia that suggests they may actually eat aster is stars and was wanting to get a hold of some to see if my linkia will eat them

Just google blue linkia diet there is pictures of them eating asternias

If anyone in the red deer area has a bunch of these I would actually like to see if I can feed them to my starfish