Three of these popped up...

[MommaDoobz]

First! Don't laugh at me. I have a 45 gallon saltwater tank with some live rock and two very small damsels. We've had them for several months and are waiting for income tax to remove the damsels and move up in fish, the damsels were just our way of "starting" our tank, to get a good environment ready.

Anyway, a week(ish) ago a tiny hairy white thing popped up on the back of my tank. Now there are two more, (much much smaller). I have no idea what they are. If they wont hurt my fish, and are tanks safe/friendly, I don't mind keeping them. We've had a few small starfish come from our liverock that we adopted. But if they aren't tank friendly, how can I remove them? Here are photos, hard to take because so small.

Thanks for any help!
Momma

 

[beeguiles]

First! I laughed as soon as I read don't laugh at me lol just cuz it sounded funny. Anyways, they are harmless pineapple sponges. Won't hurt anything. They are little filter feeders.

 

[MommaDoobz]

Thank you!! :D

 

[fastrd400]

Ummmm, the big one really looks like a Nudi to me, and if it is, you will want to remove it more times than not. Also, your baby starfish...............those are most likely Asternia Stars and will grow to plague like proportions. You may want to think about pulling them out as well.

 

[beeguiles]

I have asternia stars in my tank too and the aren't causing a problem. Been in there for about six months and I've only seen a few.

 

[MommaDoobz]

Ummmm, the big one really looks like a Nudi to me, and if it is, you will want to remove it more times than not. Also, your baby starfish...............those are most likely Asternia Stars and will grow to plague like proportions. You may want to think about pulling them out as well.

All three of those photos are of the same thing. The other ones that have popped up are too small to photograph. As for our stars, yeah, I'm pretty sure they're Asternia's but theyre crazy small and there are only two of them right now. We kind of don't mind them considering we'll be getting rid of these fish and introducing new fish in a few months. We're thinking of going with an aggressive themed tank (Eel, puffers, that sort of thing). I just don't want anything in here thats going to plague my tank and make it die... ya kno?

Edited to add... : Also my tank isn't a reef tank. Just live rock and fish. But if Asternia's will hurt my fish I'll get rid of them. I'm so new at this. Had the tank running for like, 6 months now because I want it to be well established before introducing the more expensive fish. I've got three young children and it was kind of heartbreaking when our last fish perished. =/

 

[fastrd400]

All three of those photos are of the same thing. The other ones that have popped up are too small to photograph. As for our stars, yeah, I'm pretty sure they're Asternia's but theyre crazy small and there are only two of them right now. We kind of don't mind them considering we'll be getting rid of these fish and introducing new fish in a few months. We're thinking of going with an aggressive themed tank (Eel, puffers, that sort of thing). I just don't want anything in here thats going to plague my tank and make it die... ya kno?

If your plans are to run a FOWLR then let the critters be, they won't hurt anything. If you plan to introduce or have corals they will feed off them, both the Nudi and the Asternia.

 

[MommaDoobz]

Yep, it's a FOWLR. I just didn't know where else to turn to ask. :) Thanks again!

 

[Smitty]

Welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard. Imo, a 45 gal tank will actually be too small for the larger aggressive fish unfortunately. You can still make it a fowlr community tank. If you were to do aggressive fish, you could only do probably 1-2 fish.

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

I would suggest going with a community tank also, the aggressive fish need large, long tanks. They dont do very well in small tanks. You could keep a snowflake eel in there and a small puffer, but that would be it for fish.