Starfish piece? Worm? Photo included

[LaniBaby]

Anyone have any idea what this is? I came in today and it was stuck on the glass. Looks like a tiny piece of starfish but also seems a bit bristly. Was out on the glass after the lights being off for about a day and a half. (I ordered a light timer last week and between the post office being lazy and veteran's day, it never came. )

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Alana.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Those starfish are always missing body parts. So long as the middle mouth exists, I think they can survive missing all but one points of the star.

It's a star in my opinion.

Sent from my HTC android on tapatalk

 

[lunacris]

that looks like one of those goofy stars that grow weird i have some in my tank and my harlequin is eating them like crazy forgot the name tho

 

[LaniBaby]

don't have any harlequin's, just a bunch of sexies. Seems to have a mouth there. From up close, kind of looks like a sand sifter. I wonder how he got in? Live rock, perhaps. I'll keep an eye. Anyone think I need to remove him?

Thanks!
A.

 

[lunacris]

ive read and talked to people who think they are a problem these lil guys seem to spread like crazy some think they eat corals so ive been told never had any issues they seem to be a non issue for me

 

[FishBeard]

Looks like a tiny version of my sand sifting starfish. Could have come in on anything, even hidden on a frag plug

 

[poidog]

Astraea star

 

[Scarlett778]

Jes it's an Astrea Star

 

[LaniBaby]

so i did a little research. Do you both mean "asterina stars?" I found both. The photos look pretty similar. A lot of people say they're not reef safe but a few people said if they're on the glass, they're probably just eating algae. I have a good amount of algae in there and he seems to be busy. I just don't want to get overrun with them. The little guy's cute, though, and I'd hate to just "off" him.

 

[Scarlett778]

Lol yeah sorry Lani, just fat fingered the name. We have a bunch also and it doesn't seem to harm any of our corals, but I too have heard they can be pests. Bob the Blue Jawed Trigger will eat those once in a while.

 

[poidog]

they multply like mad, but if you want a harlequin shrimp leave it and and have them multiply so you have a food source