Spotted in fish area - no special lighting.

[Lebowski_]

I’ve never seen one of these before. Sponge? It was huge, over 6” across.

[Cyprinodont]

Colonial tunicate maybe?

[jambon]

This is a guess but it reminds me of an odd type of starfish.

[CD_Scapes]

On 4/22/2023 at 6:51 PM, Lebowski_ said:

I’ve never seen one of these before. Sponge? It was huge, over 6” across.

Cushion sea star

[Lebowski_]

8 hours ago, CD_Scapes said:

Cushion sea star

That’s it! Wow they are huge. I wonder why the LFS ordered them.

[Tired]

Might have thought it would get some attention, or might be the supplier just sent 'em some. Every non-brittle, non-serpent, non-asterina starfish I'm aware of is either nigh-impossible to feed, not reef safe, or both, but I suppose if it's only the latter this might be a cool animal for a FOWLR. 

[mcarroll]

Internet sez they are mostly detritus eaters that will also eat microfauna (also in the detritus)...and sometimes hard coral, but not a coral predator.

 

Would be interesting to see if one could get enough detritus in a large, well-stocked tank that it could avoid resorting to coral eating.  

 

Sounds like it should be possible, at least hypothetically.  I bet a REALLY large tank wouldn't have any more problem with these than with common "sand sifting star fish".