Hello,

I found an odd looking sea-star today in my tank- the only sea-star I've ever seen in my 3 gal:



as you can see the majority is white with these wacky teal,green/blue markings and those neon orange dots. the body is covered in white scales. Also this thing has only 3 legs. there is evidence of a fourth leg that fits kinda where that stub is (idk if you can see it in the first pic; the bottom portion of the star) so it's possible that this thing had 4 legs at some point.

It's REALLY tiny and looks way cool so it would be great if I could keep it, but if you guys can ID it please and tell me whether it's coral-safe, I would really appreciate it

Looks like a common asterinid star. Some people have issues with them, claiming they eat corals. I've seen them in numerous tanks, but never in a situation where they actually eat corals or could positively be said to have done so. Their populations tend to wax and wane depending on the number of food sources they have. They eat various worms, 'pods, etc.

common or not, this sucker looks really cool
if it's gonna eat corals then that might be an issue however..

Like I said, I've never seen them openly preying on corals. This is in many tanks that I've seen and/or cared for. Some people rarely report it, but I'm not so sure if the starfish are immediately to blame in those cases.

There's a lot of different species of asterina stars, some do eat corals but most do not, and most people with them don't report problems.

If you like him especially there's no reason to worry unless you start loosing corals or you catch him in the act.

if he preys on my corals then I'll know that he's got no other food left in the tank
thanks for the ID guys.

I had some blue grey ones that came in on a zoa colony. They definitely ate zoas. I just removed them with tweezers as I saw the ones attacking zoas. There weren't alot so it didn't take much to rid of them.