holy carp Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I bought a couple frags yesterday and found this guy attached to the bottom of one of the plugs while I was dipping (ReVive). It did not die from a 10 minute dip and now I have it in QT. I think it's one of the types of Asterina, but is there any way to know if it's good or bad to put in the aquarium? Left side of the photo is the top view, right side is the underside of the critter. Link to comment
Muraki Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 You should be fine. Is it a Asterina star. Link to comment
righttirefire Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Innocent until proven guilty. I have asterina stars and most have been fine. I had 1 it's blue and bigger than rest maybe the size of a nickle. And it assisted in melting some zoas... I'm not sure it was the cause but it lived on top of a couple zoas heads and when it moved all that was left a little dead black ball that was a coup zoas. So it's in the sump. Reminds me of the starfish from 'finding nemo' and hasn't bothered my coral frags in the sump... Link to comment
Elizabeth94 Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Most astern stars are okay. However, I would certainly watch it. When I had my sump system I would take the stars and put them in there since I saw them more on the rocks rather than the glass. I had a thought that if they are on the glass they are mostly algae eaters. My rocks were pretty clean so when I saw them on the rocks I felt like they were hunting something. Most of the time they are okay, but if you are worried throw them in the sump if you have one.. Link to comment
clownfitch Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 i have had the zoanthid killing type of asterina stars also. Not ALL asterina starfish are created equal. Just keep an eye on any zoanthids or palythoas that you have in your tank. If they are the polyp eating type of star then you will see them cupped over the top of the zoanthid polyp. Remove them if you see them doing this. Link to comment
holy carp Posted October 26, 2015 Author Share Posted October 26, 2015 OK, thanks for the responses. I've moved it into the sump. There's plenty of algae down there for it to eat, but of course no zoas to test. If I'm feeling ambitions, maybe I'll try to do a test later when I have a zoa frag to spare to see if it goes for the bait. I'm content with it down there in the sump for now, but in my experience, everything eventually jumps the pump to the display. I've even seen a bristle worm between 1" and 2" long go through the pump unharmed... or at least unkilled. Link to comment
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