Id these 6 legged starfish

Phyxius

Phyxius

Member
I picked some live rock up off of CL and it has these starfish in the rocks. Brittle stars I have always seen before had 5 legs and these all have 6 but similar coloring. Are these still the common brittle stars or are they of a different family...good or bad? Rock is currently in a tub until I decide where and if I am going to use it.
 

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JandR

JandR

Member
Yeah lots of people call them Baby Brittle Starfish. I love these guys I have several on my rocks and they seem to be good. Just filter feeders. My fish guy says they spark if a leg gets torn off to ward away predators but I dunno if its true never seen it in person but sounds cool.
 
Phyxius

Phyxius

Member
redsea reefer said:
Yes, Just common Micro Brittle Stars. I have many of them..
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Problem is this rock I got over the last few days has revealed 100s of them. Not really what I wanted to start a 60g cube with right away. They spread out tip to tip larger than a quarter so they are not micro ones. From the looks of some arms sticking out some are much larger.
 
JandR

JandR

Member
Wow I wish I had them LOL. If you didnt want them could you take it out and put in a bucket of FW? I am not sure about them but I know when most "hitch hickers" at that volume die off due to tank change and such it can make a huge cycle which with a lot of ammonia could kill other stuff. Do you have anything else in the tank or is this a new set up? If there are I would probably have to figure out a way to get them out so there isnt a huge dieoff in he tank. Maybe they will all make it though I love watching mine.
 
Phyxius

Phyxius

Member
They are in a container right now with powerhead and heat. I`m setting up a 60g cube for the wife so its not in a tank right now. The spike from die off is one of my concerns. I will be moving corals and fish from my 210g to this for her so I want it to be as less problematic as possible to start. Plus some of the corals she is getting I have had for yrs as well as some Picassos so don't want to risk a spike in anything.
Never had a starfish issue in the last 8yrs except for ones I put in so this is new LOL
 
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