My brittle stars spawned again!

[c est ma]

Tonight I was finishing up a water change when I noticed the telltale brittle star arms sticking out upright all over the LR. Before I could even grab my camera they were starting to discharge gametes. When they do so one individual comes all the way out of the rock, arches up, and begins to emit a cloudy white fluid. Here's the first set of pics :

 

Here's the first individual to emerge and arch. This one stayed in the position for quite a while:

 

 

 

In this shot you can easily see his two small legs that are just regenerating; typically these legs will be white and curl up over the dorsal side of the central disc. They do seem capable of independent movement, though. You can also see the milky fluid drifting out from under his body to the right:

 

 

While that guy was staying arched, I caught sight of this guy emerging rapidly in another part of the tank, immediately emitting gametes, and subsiding again just as quickly:

 

 

In these shots you can clearly see the arms of several other stars extending upwards out of the rock around him:

 

 

Meanwhile, back to the first guy...in this shot you can see the fluid dribbling out beneath him (between the 2nd and 3rd legs from the left side):

 

 

 

Despite all the time he was emerged, he discharged very little fluid. When through discharging, the stars collapse down onto the rock and slither back into their crevices again, but keep their legs sticking out, pointing upwards, and gyrating.

 

 

 

More pics to come after waiting out n-r's mandatory interlude...

 

--Diane

[epicfish]

Wow, those are some GREAT pictures.

 

I know you've been asked this before, but what camera gear are you using??

[djchristone]

...i think my eyes have just been violated...O.O

 

nice pics

[c est ma]

Well, as I usually refer to it, just my obsolete little Nikon Coolpix 3.1 meg point-and-shoot. I use the macro setting and also shoot through an additional magnifying lens when possible...and I take 100's of pics so that I'm likely to get lucky! Thanks very much, BTW!

 

Installment the 2nd:

 

Here was another star who emerged quickly, shot his load, if you'll pardon the expression , and subsided just as quickly:

 

 

 

 

A couple of shots of star arms sticking out in various places throughout the tank:

 

 

 

And another individual arching over that very popular little clump of zoas--sorry they're kinda blurry, but I just like to catch the money shots, as it were...(did she say that?!) Also, there seem to be individual "styles" to the arching business :

 

 

 

 

 

 

--Diane

[strangelove]

Wow you've got some productive little guys there. Again I love your play by play reefumentary

[c est ma]

Installment the 3rd...(hey, everyone likes lots of pics, right? ):

 

Another shot of mutitudinous arms:

 

 

One nice thing about these spawning events is that they're one of the few times I ever get a glimpse of a whole star, especially while the lights are on. Unfortunately, they're moving around like crazy. This guy was in the back left corner, so a little hard to get good shots of:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the best shot I could get of one on the back tank glass:

 

 

And another rushed shot, just to show this L-shaped arching star (middle of pic)...he didn't linger long in that position:

 

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

There's more!

 

This very tiny guy starts to slither up the side of a zoa colony:

 

 

 

It's hard to even tell when he arches:

 

 

This shot was particularly sharp...it's so maddening when you know that your camera CAN do something, you just can't get it to do it all the time! (This mite has two regenerating legs, too.):

 

 

So I gave it one of my pathetic tries at cropping in Paint:

 

 

Little guy emitting gametes:

 

 

--Diane

[strangelove]

It's like they all have there hands up in class and are all saying, "Pick Me, Pick Me!"

 

[c est ma]

LOL!

 

(The first time I saw this I thought they were all terminally stressed and about to expire! I thought my water had suddenly gone kablooey...then I noticed the other part of the behavior...)

[GrandeGixxer]

The one dude has 6 legs!

[blueeyeddevil]

The one dude has 6 legs!

He must be popular with the ladies

[coppycatt]

Great pics AND great story!!!

 

As always Dianne.....amazing thread.

[clifford513]

+1 Great stuff Diane!

[cstewart79]

Awesome pictures with that camera ..I have seen people with 10mp cameras with 100mm macro lenses not do as well. Kill that hair algae!!!!

[Weetabix7]

I like that last "Pick me!" shot!

 

Funny thing is, I use a Nikon coolpix too, not sure which version, I'll have to look today.

Even though it's just a point 'n shoot, I've found that it takes pretty decent macro shots.

[TUDIZZLE]

beautiful pics..my tank is crawling with brittle stars but I have yet to see one fully exposed yet.

[c est ma]

The one dude has 6 legs!

 

Actually, almost all my brittle stars have 6 legs...genetic trait? (I have quite a few, now, somewhere between 15-25 I'd say, but they all arose from 2 original hitchhikers.)

 

 

Awesome pictures with that camera ..I have seen people with 10mp cameras with 100mm macro lenses not do as well. Kill that hair algae!!!!

 

Thank you! And--I get after it once it a while...otherwise I just regard it as a 'pod lawn... despite how obvious it is in these pics, it's really not so overwhelming from the front tank view.

 

 

Funny thing is, I use a Nikon coolpix too, not sure which version, I'll have to look today.

Even though it's just a point 'n shoot, I've found that it takes pretty decent macro shots.

 

I'm glad to hear that. Oddly, I've had worse results trying to use my son's higher res cam. Your shots are super indeed--love the new tubbs blues in your thread today!

 

 

beautiful pics..my tank is crawling with brittle stars but I have yet to see one fully exposed yet.

 

I know! It was so frustrating, though just those sinuous arms sticking out are fascinating. But it's a real treat to see so many "whole animals." There's quite a bit of variation in disc pattern and overall size of breeding animals.

 

Thanks to everyone else for the kind remarks!

 

One more onslaught of pics--sorry for the overkill!

 

This particular individual seemed to have more juice to discharge than any 5 others...the following are just a handful of the multiple shots I have of him/(her?). When I click thru them quickly on the computer it's like looking at a flip book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there are always several stars in the soapdish "fuge," and they were participating as usual:

 

 

Meanwhile, this one was one of the quick up-and-down emitters. Hmm...I wonder if one type is emitting sperm and the other eggs? Anyone know offhand how this works in brittle stars? Guess I could look it up!

 

 

And of course all the filter feeders were ecstatic; this little duster stayed fully extended even though it was entangled with star legs a good part of the time:

 

 

Okay...thanks for looking!

 

--Diane

[Toomin]

Great shots, it takes more than a camera to have those photos!

[fries852]

wow!! You sure know how to take pics!! Awesome. Thanks for sharing again!!

[Ben314z]

Hehe you must be playing Barry White for them or something cause they be gettin it on! lolol

[Balmarog]

I wish my brittle stars would make some brittle babies.

[beeman7467]

Happiest 5.5 gallon tank I've ever seen. The things that go on in there are simply amazing.

[Mudfish]

Hahaha - "money shot"!

 

You're so bad!

[c est ma]

 

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

 

I wish my brittle stars would make some brittle babies.

 

Well, I think it's quite common for them to reproduce asexually. That's where all mine came from! And now I think I should probably consider thinning the herd...They are fascinating little animals, tho.

 

I expect their sexual reproduction involves some sort of planktonic larval stage that's very hard to rear in our tanks.

 

If the whole mariculture business wasn't so time-, space-, and money-demanding, it sure would be fun to try to breed and raise some of the things in our tanks...

 

Sigh.

 

--Diane

[nanu-nanu]

aww skeet skeet mofu**cka