baby starfish as a highjacker???

okay this is nuts. I took a pic and will try to post but I want to know if you guys even think this is even possible. Last weekend I bought some new plants for my tank - two diff kinds and I cant recall the names - one a moroon color and the other a wirey green one. Also about 3 pounds of live sand. I swear I saw something that looked like a baby octopus with a round center and long legs but now i can't find him - he was tiny but even more wierd is that i think this other thing is a baby starfish. It is white about a quarter inch across with 5 defined points and it has the texture of a starfish on the outside and moves across the rock like a starfish. Has anyone ever heard of something like this happening or seen a baby starsish.

 

could be a an asterina star, good part of your CUC

 

For the octopus type creature, I have no idea but I agree with Swiss. Sounds like an asterina star. I started with one or two and now I pull them out and put them in my makeshift "refugium". In the grand scheme of thigns, they're good things to have but if you're trying to grow your coralline, they're bothersome.

 

Sounds like a tiny white brittle starfish. I've got lots of them in my sand, some are only that big, they don't get much bigger than that.

good, cuc.

 

wow thats amazing thank you. so... also on that last trip to the fish store I got my first little piece of coral - green star pollyps - do i need to return this because of the starfish? I am pretty sure these starfish came in with the sand i got and i found a picture of the octapus looking one on google - it is a Ophiactis Micro Brittle Starfish. I guess they come in on live rock and sand too

 

Micro brittle stars are great clean up crews. They will not get much bigger than a quarter and they multiply. They do not hurt anything. Well let me take that back. One killed a frag one time. I was moving the frag and felt something tickling my arm. Looked down and saw this squirmy looking thing and I threw the frag across the room.

 

I laughed pretty hard at your expense, Triton. My apologies.

 

Haha Tritons too funny! So you think my little frag will be okay? I am just learning about them and I wanted to start small with something easy but i don't want him to get hurt by my new little highjackers =)

 

Yes, as long as you don't find a micro brittle star on your arm while you have the frag out of the tank, it will be fine.