Creatures from the rock and sand

JK901 · 02-15-2007, 09:16 PM

I have begun to notice lots of goodies coming from the live rock/sand in my 6g JBJ nano.

I have a starfish looking thing, although it has 6 "legs" and I can't find any pictures of a starfish with 6 "legs". Its about the size of a pencil eraser on a standard No 2.

But I also have lots of things crawling around. They have legs, but are 2-3mm or less in size. At what point do I need to worry about what these creatures are?

I know I need to watch for MAntis Shrimp and I think I have cound one about 5 cm long already, but it is way to early to tell. He just darts out of a hole, climbs around the rock real quick and goes back in the hole.

m_lacom99 · 02-16-2007, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JK901

I have a starfish looking thing, although it has 6 "legs" and I can't find any pictures of a starfish with 6 "legs". Its about the size of a pencil eraser on a standard No 2.

Probably a Asterina starfish, if you have one you will get more trust me. They are like rabbits. heres a link AsterinaFAQs

Quote:

Originally Posted by JK901

But I also have lots of things crawling around. They have legs, but are 2-3mm or less in size. At what point do I need to worry about what these creatures are?

Those are good, they are pods and such... dont worry about them they are part of a healthy system.

Marc.

inwall75 · 02-16-2007, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JK901

I know I need to watch for MAntis Shrimp and I think I have cound one about 5 cm long already, but it is way to early to tell. He just darts out of a hole, climbs around the rock real quick and goes back in the hole.

5 cm long could be a mantis, a pistol shrimp, or even a hitchhiker shrimp of another type.

A mantis shrimp looks like some evil scientist stuck the front end of a praying mantis on the back end of a shrimp.

I would worry too much about a 2 inch mantis. It's not going to break your glass, kill all of your animals, break your fingers, etc. I've kept mantis for years. I do have a species that can do the above things but that species is never a hitchhiker.

grubbsj · 02-16-2007, 07:59 AM

For the starfish check out the page that GARF has. I believe that you will find it interesting.

GARF predatory starfish 11/25/01

If your starfish looks like these, you may wish to re-move them. (I keep a couple down in the fuge, but that is alwaly a risk.)

Good luck.

JK901 · 02-18-2007, 05:53 AM

My starfish looks alot like those except it has uniform legs. Right now I have nothing else in the tank except a clown fish, but when I get more I will probably take him out.

Thanks for the info.

Here is a link to the picture of the starfish:

http://knightfamilyonline.com/album/Misc/Nano/slides/20070216_0047.JPG

geekdafied · 02-18-2007, 06:00 AM

What I have learned recently about Asterina starfish is there is different species. That is a Asterina in the pic of your tank. Some are good, some are super bad. Just to be safe, I would toss it. One of my buddies couldn't figure out why he couldnt keep zoanthids alive. I got some coral from him the other day and dipped it, and there were 2 Asterinas on it. Some Asterinas eat SPS some eat Zoanthids then there are some that eat detritus. There is not a way to know for sure without a microscope.

JK901 · 02-18-2007, 06:14 AM

Since I have only one right now, I'll just keep an eye on it. It stays within a 2 inch square and seems to just feed on the LR.

turbo4603 · 02-18-2007, 06:40 AM

one is not what you got!!!
you problably got more and dont know it!!
In my 40 gal, i had more than i could count. Imagine, i would get a needle, and play games with my father to see who could get the most in a minute! We would end up with around 45 to 50 a minute....EACH.
I couldnt control the reproduction rate, so once my tank was very stocked with them, i bought a harlequin shrimp, and he ate them all, worked out great!!!

inwall75 · 02-18-2007, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geekdafied

What I have learned recently about Asterina starfish is there is different species.

Quite True.

Remember biology class when you memorized the definition of a whole bunch of weird words and then promptly forgot the definition days after the test?

Well, one of those words was Binomial Nomenclature. In short, you told the Genus and the species only. Genus is capitalized and species is not. However, there's some shortcuts that are used as well.

One would be to name the Genus and add the letters "spp." after it. That refers to all species within a Genus.

A good example would be, "My Asterina spp. starfish has never caused me problems". That could very well be an accurate statement because they have not said what species in the Asterina genus they have. Someone else could say, "My Asterina spp. starfish ate my Montipora spp. coral". That is also an accurate statement for the same reason.

In truth, like Geekdafied said, these puppies are hard to ID without a microscope and most hobbiests wouldn't know the difference anyway. I think GARF was overly dramatic. Over the years, I would say that about 1% of the Asterina spp. starfish have been troublemakers with all of the posts on all the different forums. Most species are harmless herbivores but there are a few that are omnivores.