hickhiker stars

jtydell · Post by **jtydell** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:58 am

I have these two hitchiker stars thats showed up, anyone know about them?

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:44 am

I have had several of those in the past. I know most people consider them harmless, but in my experience, I have seen them graze on sps.. I've had a line of white where the skin has been eaten off a coral, and I can follow the line to one of those little crunchy bastages. This has been more than once. They seem to like to hang out on the glass where it is heavily coraline encrusted. I always pick them out, but this just my experience, as I know most people will tell you they are harmless algae grazers.

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:53 am

Just remembered the name, couldn't think of it . They're called Asterina.

jtydell · Post by **jtydell** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:34 am

thanks, I'll keep an eye on em.

I read the Garf post on the sps muncher, I dont think thats him.

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:36 pm

I've seen some of these in my tank too. I always take them out when I see them...I'd rather be safe than sorry. I just put them in my QT tank.

Post by **snoopdog** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:56 pm

I have had them on or off for many years. Normally if you do not have anything that would eat them then they flourish. I have one guy that is getting quite large I noticed this morning. They are strange though, normally there leg count is off and the legs never seem to be the same length all the way around.

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:37 pm

snoopdog wrote:I have had them on or off for many years. Normally if you do not have anything that would eat them then they flourish. I have one guy that is getting quite large I noticed this morning. They are strange though, normally there leg count is off and the legs never seem to be the same length all the way around.

It's because they reproduce by dropping legs

So when you see a short leg you know they just made a baby.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:27 pm

I always remove them. IMO, there is no way I am going to take a chance and if they do anything to benefit the tank I'm sure that something else can do it instead.

Melissakins · Post by **Melissakins** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:57 am

And if anyone does want any, I have a ton of them in my tank

jtydell · Post by **jtydell** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:49 pm

I caught the white one munching on some star ployps so I plucked it, Im watching the other one, it seems to be an algae eater.