Jump to content
Innovative Marine Aquariums

brittle stars


chufa

Recommended Posts

My tank has developed a massive population of brittle stars. There must be dozens of them. Pretty cool looking things. A couple of questions, though:

 

Do brittle stars eat pods? I noticed since the explosion of brittle stars I haven't seen much pods as before. The sand which used to be crawling with pods is now crawling with brittle stars.

 

Are they asexual? For six months, I did not have any in my tank. One day I introduced one that was in the bag with my then new clown goby. Since then, more started to show up. Or maybe it was pregnant?

Link to comment
HogWinslow

I'm so jealous of you guys with all the brittle stars. I have none and would love to them. From what I hear they are a good thing.

 

Hog

Link to comment

Brittles are scavengers and if they will search the sand and rock crevices for food. They could be eating some pods but I'm not sure. Sounds like that you introduced a "pregnant" or "bearing" starfish. I would really recommend removing some soon before they strip your tank out of anything in the sand.

 

All the books I have say the have no sex and weren't specific on how they multiplied.

 

Cameron

Link to comment

cool so these guy are sand sifting? that would be grat. i'm looking for a sand sifting starfish to help with my detrius covered black sand.

Link to comment

Chufa, there are several of us who would be happy to take a few off of your hands if you need to get rid of them. I've got plenty of room for them in my 90, and I know that jdsabin1 has a number of tanks to spread them out in. PM me if you need to get rid of some. We'll work something out.

Link to comment

cool, but those things are tiny! I like them too, forget the pods! FlyGTI, I will PM you. offsprg01, I have never shipped any livestock and I don't know how to. PM me, maybe you can give me some tips.

 

Anybody want some limpets too? I got them everywhere, even in my biowheel :o

Link to comment

How do you get them out of your LR? ???

 

I have several hitchhiker stars in my rock (all I see are their little arms sticking out). I’m not really worried about them, but is there a trick to catch them?

Link to comment

yes, that can be a problem, I haven't figured out that yet. I may be able to catch some that are under shells in the sand bed.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...