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How to tell good hitch hikers fro bad


chipmaker

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AFter a few days of setting up our pico, it seems every time we look at it something is new in it. So far we had two teeny tiny white colored 5 armed starfish about 1/4" in size arm tip to arm tip, a brittle star, and some little oval shaped critter, perhaps 3/8" long which apapears to have some legs or such under it, and moves very very slowly. Its ringed in yellow with white in the cneter, and 4 or 6 little black or brown dots or shapes on its back. No antennae etc......looks like a miniature sea slug.....The local fish store told us to remove the small white stars as they are a parasitic star and will propagate and ruin a tank.....myth or true? I currently have them in the hob filter untili find out otherwise.

 

So with all these new little critters coming out of the live Fiji rock and live sand bed how does one deterine what is good or bad to leave in the tank. Tank only has the brittle star, a algae eating snail certix (sp?) some polyps and shrooms. Any help appreciated.

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Stars: good detritivores, harmless, cute. Certainly NOT parasites. They're confusing them with Asterina stars (do a search), which are generally also harmless.

 

Do you have a photo of the other critter? I hope you took him out--sounds like a nudibranch, and all nudis are carnivorous. BUT I'm not sure what the heck he could be without a photo.

 

EDIT: Read the post again...Are the five-armed stars like tiny brittle stars, or little tiny, blunt-armed versions of the classic sea-star shape? They very well may be Asterina, then. But, as I said, they're generally harmless detritivores. Just keep an eye on your corals--sometimes they like to nibble them. (Rarely, and the damage is usually minor if taken care of in time, and it's easy to take control of them.)

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I don't think i have anyhting in there that is considered prey for a carnivore though, other than the one snail which is about 100 plus times larger and the small serpent brittle star.

The other two stars are white, almost opaque, and resemble miniature typcially seen pictures of a starfish. I think I will let em live in the HOB for awhile yet.

 

One more question......my friend routinlely finds extremely small sand dollars smaller than a little fingers finger nail in size. Are these suitable for a Pico?

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Are they from warm waters? (Is coastal Alabama like Florida?) If so, I'd suppose they'd be fine. Size-wise, for sure. Not sure about their living habits, though. I'd assume they eat ###### out of the sand; detritus or microscopic creatures. Should be easy, I assume. If they die, though, prepare for a catasrophic mini-tank crash...

 

So no photo of the weird critter?

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Here's an enormous macro shot of the underside of an Asterina star. Note the legs: they can have virtually any number from two to a dozen or more, and any size. Color can vary a bit too.

 

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Caesar777

Yes, the sand dollars are from warm waters in the Florida / Alabama panhandle. Alabamas gulf waters is just like the waters of floridas panhandle area, nice and warm most of the time, and sand dollars are super abundant...

 

The little critter is gone off exploring his new environment I guess, but I will keep trying. Evidently there was more than just that one, as the wife kept showing me something that looked just like it did but were sort of flattened up in a crevice, and I said they appeared to be more of a growth than a critter, but now they too are also gone...

I apprediate the link on the asterina stars. That is definately what I have two of so far.....

 

Thanks for the help and as soon as I get a pic of the critter I'll make another post.

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