last ID check, i promise...

[Poor Boy]

24273

and i lied... im pretty sure this wont be my last "ID check" thread...

Thanks!

[350gt]

Oh dang that looks wicked... Lol

Like a asterina morphing into something..

[koa25]

I think they call it a face hugger...

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[Mike]

I would say it is the central disk and single arm of a starfish. It looks like our sand sifter. It is possible it lost a leg with part of the central disk attached so will regenerate a whole new starfish eventually. Of course I could be wrong... My 2 cents might not even be worth that . Very interesting though.

[Poor Boy]

Should I throw it in the main tank or leave it in the fuge?

It does look pretty sick...

[Kristy]

Fascinating! I thought the same thing as Mike... I think you should pull it out and get a closer look. Send us a close-up picture with something for scale reference (like your hand or a coin).

[Poor Boy]

i cant find it at the moment, but its length is that of a finger nail.

[Southern Flame]

I had an asterina star looked like that I threw him away :-/


90 gal reef <3 250 build<3
MAAST

[Kristy]

Yeah if it was that small, I'm thinking asterina too. They are no bueno.

[jcnkt_ellis]

I have asterina stars as part of my cleanup crew. They have never latched onto any of my sps. However, others have reported the exact opposite. It seems there are multiple species out there with little info on how to tell the difference

[Southern Flame]

All the ones in my tank chow on my zoos :(


90 gal reef <3 250 build<3
MAAST

[ramsey]

All the ones in my tank chow on my zoos :(


90 gal reef <3 250 build<3
MAAST

I've had the same problem. It seems that some do and some don't. Harlequin shrimp will take care of them if you get overrun but then you're left buying chocolate chip starfish for the shrimp.

[Southern Flame]

JJ had a pair I tried to get hubby to buy them for me for V day lol


90 gal reef <3 250 build<3
MAAST

[ramsey]

JJ had a pair I tried to get hubby to buy them for me for V day lol


90 gal reef <3 250 build<3
MAAST

They're really neat to watch! Buying starfish gets old quick though.

[Southern Flame]

I gatta buy fish food anyway lol but they are so pretty I want a pair bad


90 gal reef <3 250 build<3
MAAST

[350gt]

I have asterina stars as part of my cleanup crew. They have never latched onto any of my sps. However, others have reported the exact opposite. It seems there are multiple species out there with little info on how to tell the difference

+2 no issues here..... The clean up well

[rocketeer]

I didn't know asterina stars were bad. I used to have tons of em and nothing seemed to suffer. For some reasonm now I don't have so many. Not sure that's what you have, but it looks like it. Kind of big though.

Jack

[FireWater]

I seem to remember reading an article, think it was Fenner, that talked about different stars. Something about number of legs and size, but it was difficult to distinguish types. There are stars that irritate and prey on zoas and palys.
I also remember having discussions about about amphipods and the pros and cons of them. With a lot of waste in the tank and on colonies the pods would crawl all over the colonies eating detritus which would irritate the colonies causing them to stay closed.