Super tiny brittle star???

Hillerd86 · May 27, 2020

Always saw a leg but I finally got a full pick during feeding time. As the post title states, is this just some sort of super small brittle starfish. You can even see the scale against one of my zoas.

Sparkymarc · May 27, 2020

Yep. Micro brittle starfish. Great CUC

Hillerd86 · May 27, 2020

Nice as long as he doesn't hurt anything that's all I was looking for. Does it get any bigger or is that about it?

Johniejumbo · May 27, 2020

Awwww cute lil thing isn’t it. I used to have a bunch of micro brittle stars. Now I have valentini puffer...... and no micro brittles ;Facepalm

vetteguy53081 · May 27, 2020

These are always welcomed in my tanks. Good find !

Auquanut · May 27, 2020

They'll get bigger, but not much. It's kinda cool to see their legs poking out of the rock work at feeding time.

SCH · Sep 16, 2020

If you don't have any predators...June, July, Aug, Sep.....you should have a whole lot more by now. Lol

My tank is LOADED with them and it all started with one cute little hitchhiker! Sometimes they irritate one of my zoa twizzler colonies - it's still not over them being all up in their biz but the colony itself is fine. Considering it was growing out of control, they're kinda doing me a favor keeping them in check.

Does anyone have exp with them being bad for the amphipod population?

It's likely my mandarin & wrasse have moved on from their many copepods. I ordered a ton of amphipods to reastablish what I once had - even during the day you'd see them out & about. It's more likely the wrasse & mandarin went to town and cleaned them all out (I rarely see them in the fuge anymore either) but if these starfish are going to make it impossible for them to repopulate in the rocks... then what to do?

Hillerd86 · Sep 16, 2020

I literally have an uncountable amount of them and brissel worms since this first post haha. If I feed my corals some reef roids they all come out and it's like the walking dead

Auquanut · Sep 16, 2020

Hillerd86 said:
I literally have an uncountable amount of them and brissel worms since this first post haha. If I feed my corals some reef roids they all come out and it's like the walking dead

If the bristle worms get out of hand, there are several wrasses that will eat them. My melanaurus wrasse keeps the display clear (I've never seen one in the DT). I'm sure they're there, just never see them. The sump is a different story.

Karen00 · Sep 16, 2020

Hillerd86 said:
I literally have an uncountable amount of them and brissel worms since this first post haha. If I feed my corals some reef roids they all come out and it's like the walking dead

This made me LOL. "It's like the walking dead." Too funny. I can picture this quite easily!!

John08007 · Sep 16, 2020

Hillerd86 said:
Nice as long as he doesn't hurt anything that's all I was looking for. Does it get any bigger or is that about it?

Nope, typically stay small, or die before they get large, either way you won't have a 6" star in your tank from one of these guys

Hillerd86 · Sep 19, 2020

Karen00 said:
This made me LOL. "It's like the walking dead." Too funny. I can picture this quite easily!!

I'll record it next time I feed. It is very creepy haha.

Karen00 · Sep 19, 2020

Hillerd86 said:
I'll record it next time I feed. It is very creepy haha.

Yes, please record it. It sounds hilarious and will make a good video for when Halloween rolls around! The Walking Dead Brittle Star movie. LOL.

BkReefBaby · Sep 19, 2020

Those are awesome been looking for those forever will pay for some

chadg · Sep 20, 2020

I've got what seems to be 100's of them in my tank. I feel bad when they get stuck in the Clarisea, but there are sooo many....

Conchman · Sep 20, 2020

Yeah, sometimes when I do a water change they come out from everywhere, start spawning, back they go...freaked me out the first time. Did not know I had as many as I did...

SCH · Sep 22, 2020

BkReefBaby said:
Those are awesome been looking for those forever will pay for some

Problem with that is - you can't exactly catch them. Every time I try to get a hold of one it just retracts into the rock! lol

SCH · Sep 22, 2020

Hillerd86 said:
I'll record it next time I feed. It is very creepy haha.

Also very creepy - when you go to spy on the night critters (with a super dim mini flashlight) and you see three or four of the things just launch of the rocks and float by in the water column....sooo crazy how/why they do that!

mattfish · Sep 22, 2020

SCH said:
If you don't have any predators...June, July, Aug, Sep.....you should have a whole lot more by now. Lol

My tank is LOADED with them and it all started with one cute little hitchhiker! Sometimes they irritate one of my zoa twizzler colonies - it's still not over them being all up in their biz but the colony itself is fine. Considering it was growing out of control, they're kinda doing me a favor keeping them in check.

Does anyone have exp with them being bad for the amphipod population?

It's likely my mandarin & wrasse have moved on from their many copepods. I ordered a ton of amphipods to reastablish what I once had - even during the day you'd see them out & about. It's more likely the wrasse & mandarin went to town and cleaned them all out (I rarely see them in the fuge anymore either) but if these starfish are going to make it impossible for them to repopulate in the rocks... then what to do?

Dont worry . there Good Guys !