Cannot believe it.

[Kurt]

I am shocked this morning. The day before I just got in a shipment of several corals, royal gramma, 1 brittle star, 4 emerald crabs, 5 bumble bee snails.
OK so now this morning I am inspecting my tank admiring my new corals and to see if I can spot the moving type creatures. I found surprisingly 3 of the emerald crabs, 4 snails, oh I forgot to mention the lettuce nudibranch. And the brittle star. Thinking to myself that was pretty good for my tank size and to still find these small creatures. Then, What is this :thud: another brittle star. It has been over one year since I seen a brittle star in my tank and the last time I seem him he was being devoured by bristle worms , there is no way he is still alive. I did have 2 brittle stars one time in a previous tank. Then only one got transfered to the bigger newer tank because there was only one left. Well this is pretty cool, so is it possible that I had another brittle star in my tank for 3 years without knowing it. Could a brittle star have been shipped with the recently added corals and other creatures. I doubt very much that last thought. Well thought I would share my happiness.:D

[mogurnda]

Good deal! I had a serpent star that lost all its legs to a hairy crab. Amazingly enough, they all grew back and the guy is now huge.

[Gealcath]

Thats the good thing about starfish/brittle stars/serpent stars is if you have good water quality they can fend of most attacks, and will regenerate rapidly, if you get real lucky and have good water, they can regenerate as long as 15% of the central disk is intact (also if they get into a big fight and a leg gets cut off or biten off, as long as 15% of the central disk is on the limb it can regenerate into a whole new starfish).


So you mentioned one of the brittle stars was being eaten by a Bristleworm, as long as 15% of the central disk was intact, it could have regenerated into a new brittlestar, but the process can take years.

[Kurt]

OK that must have been what happened. So very cool. But I think that the bristle worms were eating him because he was dying. So then would they not have finished him off? This new star I noticed is exactly like the old one I used to have but I think about half the size. Just hard to believe the brislte worms would not have completely finished him. :scratch:

[Kurt]

:dance 15% I just realized you said 15%. For some reason I thought I read 50%