mini-stars or algae????

Everyone has heard about my tank over the last two weeks. Last night I noticed all kind of stuff squirming on the glass, and then I spotted these. Im not sure if they are some sort of algae or maybe juvenile starfish.

any suggestions????

 

Were they moving? As I recall, juvenile sea stars are swimmers for a short time after hatching, then as they get larger they settle down on some surface. By this time, they are symetrical and look like tiny versions of the adults. The picutes you have are different, but I can't rule out that they are sea stars. Go to the following site on the web to see a picture of a juvenile sea star.
Juvenile sea star

 

They are hydroidmedusa jellyfish. More than likely something like Staurocladia sp. The are members of the family Eleutheriidae and are Hydroids. They are qutite common in reef tanks


Staurocladia

 

You got it, Boomer! Excellent reference!

 

THose are not stars nor algae. I'm going to say hydroids.

 

Whoops. lol

 

Thanks boomer, great link, they look just like that. So i dont need to get rid of them or anything? Any ideas of what the tiny stuff is squirmng on the tank surface? there must be 1000,s of these things all over the glass, bt very small. too small to photograph me thinks (but ill give it a try) My tank has been running for about 3 weeks, i guess this is a good sign?

 

3 weeks? You're not done with the ammonia-nitrite-nitrate cycle yet, but the fact that things are living in your tank is a good sign, even if they were uninvited. Soon, you'll have various algae blooms, probably starting with cyanobacteria (red slime, or blue-green algae). But, that's another thread.

 

Hydroids are not good. But, they dont survive so they will die.

 

They seem to show up and you get a lot of them but then they dissapear. I've had them off and on for a long time wont see any then see a lot then wont see any again. They never bothered anything as far as I know of.