My cool hitch hiker star fish

[fishoholic]

Soon after we first started in this hobby in (March `06) we noticed a cool little hitch hiker star fish. I see him every now and then and I could of sworn I had a pictures of him from the years before but unfortunately I can't find any. But I did see him again today and I got some good pic.'s. Three years ago when I first saw him he was about the size of a dime and he was mostly round and flat with barely any noticeable leg bumps sticking out. Now he's about the size of a quarter, is getting bumps on his body and has 7 little legs sticking out. Here's some pic.'s of him now, if I find any before ones I'll post them later.





It's amazing to me that not only has he survived this long, but he's survived 4 tank moves. Plus moving back and forth from the reef tank to fowlr tank, when we took out the LR to catch the fish for velvet treatment. The 2nd pic. is from the fowlr tank a couple of months ago before we moved the rock back into the reef tank, so glad to see he made it back into the reef tank as the 1st pic. from today shows.

[Treebeard]

Wow! That's great that he has survived this long! Whatever he is, he is a slow grower. Gone from a dime to a quarter in 3 years? OTOH, I wish my RRSPs were worth 2 1/2 times there value from 3 years ago!

[Delphinus]

Asterina species star. They'll reproduce by fission, so you often see them lopsided because they're regrowing their arms on the split side.

I've never been bothered by the ones in my tanks but some people claim they are not 100% harmless, like they might eat SPS polyps. I've never witnessed this myself but there are probably differences in preferences between individuals and different species and whatnot. Although it bears mention that I'm completely unable to grow SPS. But I'm reasonably certain it's not these stars that are to blame.

[EmilyB]

They look wonderful on the glass at night with a little moonlight in the background. I agree Tony, I never saw any damage from mine either. Only see the odd one now.

[Ron99]

Most are harmless but there are a few coral eating varieties if you are unlucky to get one.

[fishoholic]

I don't have any sps, but it's never bothered any of the corals I do have.