Can anyone identify this?

[jsantoli]

I was doing my weekly water change today and saw these little red things, 2 of them, in one of my rocks. I thought it was my shrimps antennea since he shed last night, so i went to pull them off the rock and they pulled away from me. Now this isnt anything I have put in my tank. I coerced it out of the rock and took it out of the water. Its a little starfish I guess but I dont know how it could get into my tank. Any ideas?

 

[Phyl]

Hitchhiker. I have some of those in my tank as well. Harmless scavengers, IME. Looks small. Too bad you didn't have a quarter in there for reference. How big would you say it was?

 

[jsantoli]

with its legs out fully i would say a little smaller then a quarter, the way it is in the pics curled up, about the size of a dime. So there is nothing to worry about with it Phyl?

 

[dnov99]

Looks like a baby brittle star. I have them, they are beneficial.

 

[jsantoli]

Okay cool, thanks!

 

[sean_nj]

Definitely the little starfish, the hitchhiker.

Sean

 

[Hawkeye]

it looks like it's missing some of it's arms. I've seen ones like that in my LR.

Here's a pic of the other mini-stars that I've seen - but these are typically in my live sand.