mystery starfish, not a choc. chip

[ersico]

:popcorn:so heres the deal. we got this starfish at the lfs today, its very lively and has the general shape of a choc. chip. however, it appears to be kinda forest green in color with nearly neon orange spikes:drool:. and its huge. it was listed aa a general starfish and i just didnt believe it..... luckily i have no corals in my tank so i bought it.
any info on it would be greatly appreciated :confused::nilly:

[ersico]

the last pic is of my blue coral banded shrimp. i finally got a pic of him/her today and just had to post it somewhere (its in another tank)

[Grins]

Gen Starfish is what they mark when they don't know the name.

[Mantis411]

no clue what is it....what kind of eel/fish is in the second and third pic?

[ersico]

its a green wolf eel :)

[ewurm]

I believe it actually is a Chocolate Chip starfish. When we get them in, we get some with orange tips and some with white.

[ersico]

i was kinda thinking it was also, however ive been looking them up and have noticed non of them have the knobbs on the outer rim of thier legs.....im in no way saying your wrong.....just im still not sure about it...either way, its really pretty and im glad i got it...oh has anyone had problems with starfish eating urchins????

[Twitterbait]

it is true that choc chips have many color variants, while i would place this guy in the same bracket as choc's for care, i agree it is different.

[Max]

What does it eat? Have you noticed it eating foods that you were feeding the tank or just grazing on the live rock?

[ersico]

i actually just got it yesterday and its in a FOWLR tank and its crawling all over the glass right now.

[ShadowBass]

I don't think it's a chocolate chip, which is usually a specific species (Protoreaster nodosus), and as far as I know they always have a lighter colored body with darker knobs, though the colors can vary. Yours is the other way around, dark body with lighter knobs, so it seems it would be a different species unless it's just an unusual variant. Of course I'm not very knowledgeable about starfish so that's just my observation.

Yours does have the same body shape though, so assuming it's not a chocolate chip, I think you could make a good guess that it's in the same genus (Protoreaster). Unfortunately I couldn't find any info on more than a couple of the species in that genus and none of them matched yours, nor did any of the actual chocolate chips.

You may have a hard time finding the identity since saltwater organisms are often sold mislabeled or other species get mixed into a shipment. I have a goby that absolutely no one can identify, and I've tried for months, so it can be quite frustrating.

[ersico]

thanks soo much for the research and the names....you rock!!! i like your reasoning by process of elimination. tomorrow at work ill have the genus name to go by at least i have some direction now...thanks again :)

[TheJEWEL]

Thats tha coolest starfish i've ever seen!

[ersico]

thanks. i like it too, its eaten a purple urchin already, but its always active and moving around. so.... it is really pretty, it almost looks fake til you notice its not in the same place :)

[Polypterus Senegalus]

nice choco chip variant!

[ersico]

thanks, i also have a choc. chip with no pigment, we call him a moca chip. :)

[ersico]

HEY SHADOWBASS, you dont' happen to have a pic of the unknown goby do ya, i just love those lil buggers and would like to help find what he is, gives me something else to do at work lol.

[i have crabs]

its not a cc its a general star,almost the same as a red general but different sientific name and colours, i had one for 2 years just died though after moving into a large tank i never feed it and it couldnt find enoughf food i think.

[water_baby83]

Gen Starfish is what they mark when they don't know the name.


lol not quite, its actually a totally different species.

[ersico]

it saddens me to report, it died and was breaking down shortly before chrismas, im glad i took pictures of it, as it is now my desktop picture on my computer. it just upsets me