asternia stars...good or bad

[The Wedge]

I found two white asternia stars on my glass. Should I keep them...

[cocoa_pleco]

yep no harm

[coachfraley]

voted bad, mine eat corraline!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think most are harmless.

[labnjab]

We have a few and haven't had them do anything bad. They seem to roam around eating waste and what-not

[kaybee]

There are various types of asterina's.

Some consume algae, others detritus and some are harmful to corals. If you see them on your glass (perhaps consuming film algae) rather than on your corals (doing harm) then you've got the safe variety.

From what I've seen (which isn't all inclusive) the safe one's stay fairly small and are usually white or white and gray, while the non-reef variety get larger (nearly candy corn-sized) and are sand colored.