dumb question...ID's please

[DaviesPats]

well ive been extremely bored and hot and need something to do to keep my mind off the heat so what am i doing...checking out my live rock...and i seem to be seeing TONS of little starfish...all look to be small brittle's and all are white except one that is black and grey...cant get any photos they're too small...and i look at my little arch i have going on and this HUGE worm is there....he went andhid but he was orange/yellow with hundredsof legs...can i get some ID's on bother...and whether ornot i should be trying to eliminate them

[Fly Guy]

The starfish are cool and safe and the bristleworm is good at eating leftover food and detritus. They can be an issue in numbers abundant enough that you can see them everywhere you look, but otherwise beneficial to the system. They can actually grow several feet long. Dont pick him up with your bare hands. Those "legs" you describe arent legs, they are bristles and poisonous.

[tims]

yup

[Loverotties]

Double yup!

[whatevva]

Triple Yup !

[leveldrummer]

four yups and a couple good id links for stuff. bookmark these for the future, they have saved me lots of times.

http://melevsreef.com/id/

http://www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm


any time you see something funny, you can look them up!
and there are no dumb questions, no body new what that stuff was when they started either.

[DaviesPats]

ok...with that being said...do they have the potentional to be as large as those seen in the store and if so...how long will that take roughly

[Fly Guy]

I assume you are talking about the starfish? Although similar, they are different and just a much smaller type. Those are adults you are seeing, or if not, double their size(or something like that) and those are adults.

Good thing really, otherwise we would view those little starfish as pests we needed to get rid of. I dont use 'fuges anymore but when i did i use to have hundreds of them.

[Sophie's mom]

If you start to notice more than a few bristle worms and want to eliminate some, I got a couple of mine out with a turkey baster!
The big one is still in there and I plan to leave him, but I had other small ones that I didn't see the need for-my tank is only 12 gallons.
They're creepy huh?