If you dont have any natural predators in your tank the population of
those mutant starfish will keep growing. I had some in my 92 and at
one point I was picking out 60-70 (my daughter enjoyed keeping count)
of them at least once a week. They killed a beautifully colored pipe
organ colony I had so they do harm to corals.
I couldnt keep up with them so I finally got a harlequen (sp) shrimp
that cleaned them out.

Ken


Roy wrote:
I like those asternia stars. I have a bunch of them....The local lfs
here removes em all and flushes them......The other LFS goes to the
extremes of usiing a harequinn shrimp he places from tank to tank to
erradicate them. Some say they eat coral, others say they eat
coraline......but I have yet to see any damages from them. Same thing
with bristle worms.......folks generally find them repulsive in looks
so they have to be bad, so they get pulled and flushed.

Just like Pszemol stated, they reproduce by fission. I have a few
that are perfect with 6 legs, but most are bits and pieces.... and
they all do just fine. They are a common hitch hiker.

On Wed, 8 Mar 2006 17:53:44 -0600, "Pszemol"
wrote:
"wolf" " wrote in message news i have homer simpson starfish in my tank. looks like nuclear radiation
inflicted starfish. some have 3 legs, some 4, some5, some 6, some 7, some
maybe more, or less. one is in half, and ive been watching him grow for
years, hes now bigger than a pencil eraser, hehe. some are about 2/3rds of
a starfish, wierd. i hvaent seen any more micro starfish, i think they
came from a big spawn that was on a live rock when purchased, any ideas on
this? will they spawn again?

You are talking probably about Asterina spp.
Starfish like these reproduce by fission.
After dividing they regrow missing parts...
If you look closely at your 1-2 legged ones
you should notice very small leggs growing in
the place where you think there is missing one.

http://www.dafni.com/echinodermata/A_wega.jpg
http://www.dafni.com/echinodermata/Asteroidea%202.htm

I have them in my tank - some people think they eat
corals, but the ones I have in the tank are harmless.

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