3 legged Starfish = OK?

[camellia]

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I got several of these critters in my holding tank that came on some live rock I picked up at LFS.
Can someone tell me if there are OK or a nusance please?
Kinda cute little guy!

 

[camellia]

I just found an old post by Flordiaboy, "Hichikkers in ..."
He likes the little guys and appears the have 4 legs.
I am so in love with ARC and the wealth of information.
(A reefer at lfs told me he considers them a pest!)

Thanks to all who take their time to help us new reefers!

 

[gnashty]

Good scavenger, 3 legs is fine....

 

[stacy22]

That is not a starfish. It's a brittle star. Like Gary said, it's a great scavenger.

 

[wildernets]

He is good. keep him.

 

[sewer urchin]

I think that they are good scavengers, I'm jealous though I had to order mine from a fellow reefer. Holley is the bomb for stuff like that!

 

[raz0945]

The are mini brittle stars, good part of any cleanup crew! Some larger wrasses will have them as a snack.

 

[camellia]

Thanks everyone, appreciate ya!

 

[sewer urchin]

I had a 1 legged starfish once! He has all 5 legs now.

Isn't that just a worm ; )

 

[jamos5790]

From what I've seen in the post the 2 or 3 leggers are offspring. I would have a small hitch hiker with 4 or 5 legs then I would have two with 2 or 3 legs.

 

[camellia]

I've got one with two legs also. I might leave them in there awhile to see if they grow legs?
I'll post a picture if they do!

 

[sewer urchin]

This may be an odd qustion.. can you frag a starfish? It looks as it the mini brittle star can do it on it's own

Would it be like dividing a nem- a bilateral symmetrical cut through the "mouth" with 3 legs on one side and 2 on the other

 

[stacy22]

Sewer Urchin;793244 wrote: This may be an odd qustion.. can you frag a starfish? It looks as it the mini brittle star can do it on it's own

Would it be like dividing a nem- a bilateral symmetrical cut through the "mouth" with 3 legs on one side and 2 on the other

Theortically, yes. Practically, no. In order to do it successfully you would have to have enough madreporite cells in each frag for that frag to reform a new starfish. This is very difficult to accomplish. Also, echinderms are much more sensitive to these types of "procedures" than anemones. Echinoderms are generally sexually reproducing organisms. They are more "advanced" invertebrates who actually share some evolutionary features with chordates. Cnidarians, not so much.