Starfish for a newbie

[QADoug]

Is it common for starfish to come in on live rock? I found several on a piece of tonga live rock in my tank, they are about 4 to 5mm across, see the attached picture. I don't see any pictures on Reef Frontiers that look familiar.

I have a 55 gal tank that is new. I set it up about 3 weeks ago and 10 days ago I put 15 pounds of live rock and 2 damselfish in it to start the cycle. I was planning on it being a FO tank. It is pretty well along on the cycling already.

What do they eat? Is having one good or bad? If I get more fish will they eat the starfish? Will they multiply and take over the tank? As you can tell, I don't know anything about starfish and our forum doesn't have much info on them.

My SP is 1.020, temp 78, KH 9, NH3 and NO2 are 0, NO3 5.0, PH 8.2. I am setting the tank up with only live rock and 2 inches of crushed coral for bio filtration (and close monitoring). I took the bio balls out of the wet/dry filter which is underneath the tank. It might be a refuguim one of these days.

Can anybody identify the starfish... is it a starfish?

Thanks

 

[bradreef]

asterina star maybe

 

[Ohgee]

Looks to me like what many LFS are calling the chocolate chip starfish. I had one in my tank for a long time and never went out of my way to feed it. Other than what it cleaned up around the tank.

If you are going with a FO tank you should be okay but here's a lesson I learned the hard way. If it is actually a chocolate chip then the moment you add any hard corals it will use them as a little snack.

Now I might be wrong but I was told that any starfish with bumps on it are meat eaters. Mine also loved to munch on the gorgorian I had. I finally had enough and he found himself a new home.

GL

 

[plack]

See if it looks like this star fish at this link , I also think it is a asternia but it is hard to tell from the photo though .
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/asterinafaqs.htm

 

[lyfsux]

I also have 4-5 of those star fish come out of lr and have not seen any problems so far

 

[plack]

If they are Asterina they will multiply too fast and become a pest problem and at 4 to 5 mm size it sounds right to be a Asterina

 

[QADoug]

Thanks for the input. I have checked out several web sites. It does look like the Asterina gibbosa. Same shape. The colors are different on all the web sites but the one Plack sent me. Colors vary widely.

Check out http://www.glaucus.org.uk/cushion.htm, they said "hatching rate of Asterina gibbosa eggs can be quite high, your tank could be overrun with tiny starlets!"

Any other opinions about wheather they are good or bad out there?

Thanks