little starfish everwhere

Good evening 3 reefers, It has been a while since I have posted anything. I have had my tank on maintain for about 7 months now. Spending a lot of time on the road with work. So i am just doing water changes and have added very little to the tank.

Now to the question all of a sudden I have little starfish everywhere. Like 40 of them. Some have 3 legs some have 4 and a select few have 5. They do not have the color of my sand sifter but have that body style. They do not look anything like the serpent star I have. Should I be concerned? They spend most of the time on the glass and very little time on the sand. Any ideas????

 

google asterina stars,see if thats it.

 

Sounds like Asterina starfish They are good to have in a reef. Basically part of your "hitchhiker clean up crew" I have them all over the place. They east algae and leftover food and detritus. If you have been leaving your tank for a while and these food scorces have inscreased because you are too busy at the moment, then they will miltiply because of the available food. I notice mine stay on the glass and on the live rock most of the time. Never see them on the sandbed or coral.

 

Thanks for the help. thats them

 

they eat algae, even the zoo-algae in sps coral. i find them in my birdsnest coral alot. lately i been thinking of pulling them out

 

There are hundreds of types of Asterina and some are coral predators. They are not all harmless and their numbers can get out of control.

While coloration can help identify some, it's very hard to make an ID for certain.

The number of legs does not provided any means of identification as they reproduce by lateral fission.

 

I agree!! Luckily the ones I have are completely harmless... never had a problem with them, even with my SPS. Hopefully he has the harmless ones like I do!

 

Mine are only out at night when all the lights are off, so far no harm here.

 

mine are out day and night