What do I do with this brittle star hitchhiker?

[Abarnswell]

I got a baby (I mean teeny weeny) pin-head sized baby brittle star that came home with me from the LFS when I bought some empty hermit crab shells for my blue-leg hermits (the brittle must have been hiding in one of the shells). The baby brittle star was so small that I didn't see him again once he went into the tank. Tonight, when I came home (the house was in total darkness), I turned on the tank light to check on some things and voila! There he was... the baby brittle star, crawling on the sand bed. He has probably tripled in size in just a few days. Immediately, he dove for cover under the sand.

I read up on brittle stars. (This little guy has bristles on his legs.) They are scavengers and they eat detritus (which is a good thing). They are good cleaner-uppers. However, they can prey on crustaceans and small fish when they get big (which at the rate he's growing, won't take long). They hide most of the day and come out at night.

What should I do with him? Leave him in there? Will he hurt my feather duster? Or my star and button polyps? If I do get a Pom Pom Crab one of these days, I'll have to take the brittle star out because I'm afraid he'd kill a Pom Pom Crab, once the brittle star got big. They grow to about 6 inches diameter, legs and all.

 

[drty811]

if hes that small, hes probably a mini star they wont get any bigger than he already is. heres a link on them. your lucky ive been triing to get my hands on a couple for awhile now. IMO id leave him.

http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

 

[sadielynn]

I agree perfectly safe to have the biggest that I have read that they can get is about 1 inch

 

[Abarnswell]

Omigosh! That's him! That's him!

Erik, I looked at the pictures you linked me to, and that's him -- mine looks exactly like the little star on the magnet pad. So, I have a "micro" sea star! How cool! Now I love him (now that I know he won't grow gigantuan and eat all my other critters) I hope he reproduces and gives me lots of little micro babies. This is great news! Thanks for sharing the link and the photos.

I have never ever heard of these little micro stars -- not in any of the books I have read on reef tanks. I never knew they existed -- and how cute can you get? One web site I read just now says that at night, you can drop a sinking pellet of food to the sand bed, and if you have a lot of them, you can watch them pounce on the pellet.

 

[dragon79]

I'll have to get me pellet food or something so i can see that, hehe. I personally noticed, I have gained like 2 more. I saw two in my magnet, and one in the sandbed. Good janitors to have, I see they are busier than my hermits.....they are so lazy now, they just wait for my handouts, haha.

 

[sadielynn]

Yea I am gonna order 2 dozen of the little boogers for our 2 tanks

I see they are busier than my hermits.....they are so lazy now, they just wait for my handouts, haha.

glad to see that my hermits arent the only lazy bums :lol:

 

[drty811]

sadie,

where you ordering them from?and how much you find them for?

 

[incysor]

Actually my mini bristle stars don't seem to do all that much. My asterinas, and my mini blue leg hermits seem to do more work. I actually need to order another round of snails and hermits in the near future. As soon as I win the lottery, I'm gonna get right on it. :lol: Here's a pic of one of the mini bristles in my work nano.

B