My Brittle Stars spawned!

[c est ma]

On 8/25 I was walking by my tank when I noticed that one of my brittle stars was uncharacteristically in full view. I thought that was quite odd--normally they keep their central disc hidden when the lights are on, and only stick their legs out...But I took the opportunity to get some pics of it:

 

 

 

 

 

And a more distant shot to show its size relative to the tank (5.5g):

 

 

Then I noticed another star on the left side of the tank, also unusually exposed:

 

 

In fact, it seemed that brittle stars were extending out all over the place:

 

 

 

I began to panic--I thought, "something is really stressing my brittle stars--my tank's gonna crash!" I started to prepare a big water change, when I realized that, aside from the stars, everything else seemed happy as usual--snails, hermits, corals, fish, etc....

 

Well, as the title states, it turned out to be a mass spawning event. Over the course of approx. 2 hours I was amazed to watch the whole pageant play out. Of course, my tank needed cleaning, the front glass was dirty, and on top of everything else my computer was in the shop, so I had no way to view any of my pics or remove them from the camera cards...

 

So these aren't the greatest pics in the world, but they sure tell a story!

 

Here's an early FTS with arrows pointing to some of the places the stars were poking out of:

 

 

More to come, pics & vids, after a wait to avoid "flood control."

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

My first confirmation that I was witnessing some kind of breeding behavior was when I saw one of the stars completely emerge from the LR, arch up on its legs (in the position in which one sometimes sees pics of green brittles getting ready to pounce on a fish), emit a white, cloudy liquid, and subside again...

 

I wasn't fast enough to capture the first 2 I saw, but then I noticed this rather tiny star getting active on the right side of the tank. I focused on it, and got my first set of pics of this strange behavior.

 

Starting to emerge:

 

 

Out pretty far:

 

 

Dipping back down again:

 

 

Re-emerging, and beginning to attract other stars:

 

 

Climbing to the top:

 

 

These next 4 show various stages of the arching process. If you look closely you can see the fluid being released beneath the star, and then spreading outward through the water:

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards the star quickly slid back down, but remained just below the surface with its arms waving around:

 

[c est ma]

A bit later I was able to capture the same behavior from the star I had first noticed on the side of the LR. Here he is, twisting around and emitting the fluid:

 

 

 

Some of the following are a little blurry, but they show more instances of the fluid discharging:

 

 

(The white spots in the following pics are some of the fluid):

 

 

 

 

 

I saw this star repeat this process at least 3 times over the ~2 hours...

[podBoy]

Sweet! That's really cool, Thanks for sharing! That pattern on the arms is neat.

[c est ma]

Things just got "curiouser and curiouser." This guy stood up in the center of the tank:

 

 

 

 

Here's one arching on the left top of the LR:

 

 

 

And here's a little one crawling up the left side to the top:

 

 

Arching slightly and emitting fluid:

 

 

 

And sliding back down (I was intrigued by the many different patterns on the dorsal surfaces of their central discs):

 

[c est ma]

Sweet! That's really cool, Thanks for sharing! That pattern on the arms is neat.

 

Thanks!..."there's more."

 

Here are some miscellaneous shots of some of the massive star activity I was seeing all over the tank:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My candy cane, yet again, tried to digest a detached segment of brittle star leg:

 

 

Next--videos you've gotta see!

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

My camera is really not up to videos, but here goes anyway. They look best if you don't enlarge them...

 

This first one is unfortunately sideways (how do you rotate a vid?), but it does show the arching and fluid ejection. And it's only 16 seconds long!:

 

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2724655931052266713

 

These next two show a star emerging from the rock to stand upright against the back wall of the tank, then subside again. They're only 40 seconds each, so you can see that these emergences happened quickly:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4030101168970423375

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8691193400450286494

 

These next ones, esp. the middle two, just show tremendous writhing behavior. Who knew stars were so exciting? And I think it's fascinating that somehow they all coordinated their behavior for this event. And I was just so lucky to have been looking at the tank at the right time!

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7010820315680955798

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6950841521339740237

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3903661609686459682

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7392407505117470786

 

Kudos to anyone who's made it this far!

 

--Diane

[Mudfish]

Wow, as usual - just, WOW!

 

I think you should be named N-R's resident documentarian!

[RayWhisperer]

Holy horny orgy Batman!

I think it's fascinating that somehow they all coordinated their behavior for this event.

It's gotta be the sperm/eggs released into the water. I watch my stomatellas do the same thing every few weeks. One releases the fluid, the others sense it, then quickly extend as far upwards as they can and squirt theirs out too. Horny inverts

[greeneyes]

This is very cool. Thank you for sharing, I have said it before and I'll say it again. Your pics are spectular.

[c est ma]

Wow, as usual - just, WOW!

 

I think you should be named N-R's resident documentarian!

 

LOL! Just call me Ken Burns...

 

Actually, I "document" these little happenings as much for my own records as anything else...You can tell how anal I am...If I just let these pics recede in my files full of 1000's, I'd never remember just what happened myself.

 

(BTW, I know it seems like an excess of pics posted here, but that's only a fraction of all the ones I took... )

 

 

Holy horny orgy Batman!

 

It's gotta be the sperm/eggs released into the water. I watch my stomatellas do the same thing every few weeks. One releases the fluid, the others sense it, then quickly extend as far upwards as they can and squirt theirs out too. Horny inverts

 

Good thinking--I'm sure you're right!

 

Nevertheless, it would seem that they'd all have to be "ripe" at the same time...

 

Maybe that's an ongoing process, but I've sure never seen my stars do this before. OTOH, one would have to be looking at just the right time to catch it...

 

I have heard of Stomatellas doing that--it must be pretty cool to watch that, too. And what a thrill to think that our tanks are hospitable enough that we can observe these seemingly natural behaviors.

 

* * *

 

Thanks, greeneyes!

 

--Diane

[tMoney]

That is incredible! It's like a discovery channel documentary, COOL!

[coppycatt]

Once again....your observation clearly expresses your passion for the hobby.

Excellent pics.....wonderful documentary.

[RENDOG]

Very Very Very cool. I think it's awesome that you were able to witness this and document it for anyone else to enjoy. Thanks.

[Reef Lobster]

Wow this is really neat, it's cool that you documented the whole thing hahaha thanks for sharing

[Alcapown]

Wow this is really neat, it's cool that you documented the whole thing hahaha thanks for sharing

[Lalani]

Damn you guys for bumping this thread..... I thought Diane was back.

[Gene0514]

Did you buy ALL those brittle stars?

or did you just get a couple and they spawned a long time ago?

[coolwaters]

they spawn like crazy. yours looks better then mine...mines all white even when their big.

[lakshwadeep]

Damn you guys for bumping this thread..... I thought Diane was back.

 

+1 :/

[travisurfer]

+1 :/

that

[hazmat]

What happened to Diane? I thought the same thing....then saw the date.