hitchhiking star (pics...ID help please)

[cooksalot]

i was looking at my tank and all of a sudden noticed this star fish. i don't know where he's been hiding, but there he was and my nassarius and cleaner shrimp were very interested in him. also, this may be a dumb question, but i thought stars had five legs...he looks like he has three full legs and then lost a few and it looks like four nubs are growing. is this normal?

i know these aren't the best pics, but can anyone ID it and let me know if he's good or bad. thanks!

from the top (he's fast)

from underneath on the glass

will my nass try to eat him? he keeps crawling over him.

 

[deelucky]

asternia star i believe there called.as far as its position in a reef,some say good others say so-so.i have them in my tank hasnt bothered anything.

 

[SaltWaterN00b]

I have a ton of them in my tank, havent had a problem tey with them

 

[leoskee]

I have 3 different kinds in my tank. I had a problem with one that has small reddish specks on it. It started eating one of acros. I tried to eradicate them all but only managed to kill a few hundred. They havent bothered anything else since so I let them be.

 

[deelucky]

i have heard of them busting down some corals

 

[reefman]

i had a thread on it a while back

 

[ellebelle]

The reason the one you saw didn't have 5 legs is because sometimes they lose their legs (same way a lizard loses its tail). THey will regenerate as long as the starfish hasn't lost ALL of its arms.

If you have one of those stars, you will eventually have hundreds of them. If they get to be a huge problem, you can take them out and give them (or trade them) to anyone who has a harlequin shrimp. They eat those stars.

 

[Deanos]

The reason the one you saw didn't have 5 legs is because sometimes they lose their legs (same way a lizard loses its tail).

Not entirely accurate. A lizard loses it tail to escape predation. One known method of reproduction for Asterina sp. stars, is to pull themselves apart creating 2 new starfish. In either circumstance, the missing parts are regenerated.

 

[ellebelle]

I know it's not exactly the same - I was using a simple analogy. I didn't realize I would be taken quite so literally.

 

[DonCisco]

hmmm, is like saying that the astalopithecus aforensis is kind of like the cro-magnon I'll bet you might have something to say about that elle , hope you had a good holiday