new life found in tank

boostenmkiv · 07-13-2005, 06:23 AM

I wasn't aware that brittle stars will come out of nowhere in a tank like bristle worms etc. I guess they come in the live rock? or is this some other species that "looks like a brittle star" They are very small in size and only seem to come out at night, when I turn the lights on they scurry back to a hiding place.

Thanks,
Mike

Jay · 07-13-2005, 07:41 AM

Pitures pictures pictures?

Jay

Do they have spines? Green brittles do hide when the lights come on.

amcarrig · 07-13-2005, 07:55 AM

Mini brittle stars are a different species than "regular" brittles. They do come in on live rock and I have only seen them out and about when the lights are out.

boostenmkiv · 07-13-2005, 08:55 AM

Jay, I was going to try to take pictures, but by time I went and got my camera and then came back the ones I could see were gone, or mostly hiding where I couldn't see them anymore.

amcarrig, thanks, I was kind of hoping that maybe they were just babies, but had a feeling that since I have had that tank and live rock for about 4 years and haven't added any live rock that it MUST have been some other species as they would have probably been MUCH larger than they are.

INFO - these "starfish" are about the size of a quarter not the body, but the entire size if you were to connect the end of each "leg" in a circle

igotworms · 07-24-2005, 07:09 PM

Thats no bristle star, thats five bristle worms connected in the anal region. That is a rare find, those things go for premium price. I'd grab that sucker and put it on ebay.

boostenmkiv · 07-26-2005, 01:28 PM

found more info and a picture - http://melevsreef.com/id/babybrittles.html

Bruce · 07-26-2005, 02:02 PM

cool, i got some mirco brittle stars 2