Starfish
- Thread starter BMorgan
- Start date
He does hide quite a bit, but that is half the fun is trying to find out where he is today....never in the same spot. He does come out at night to explore...I like that he is small and not invasive.
Side note: I have about 10 brittle stars in the tank (at least I think they are the hitcher kind) that are the two tone brown. I also have one that is solid white.
Side note: I have about 10 brittle stars in the tank (at least I think they are the hitcher kind) that are the two tone brown. I also have one that is solid white.
Does he come out under the actinics or just after the main light cycle?
And the microbrittles are cool little hitchikers. I never lucked out with any.
And the microbrittles are cool little hitchikers. I never lucked out with any.
He comes out after the main light cycle is complete and the moon lights are on. It is a bit odd in the beginning to see the microbrittles as at first it seems they are bristle worms...until another appendage and then another shows from the same area. I really like them. Oh, found three feather dusters as hitchers....yea....no cool colors, but the are free.
I personally love the common hitchhiker brittle stars. They stay pretty small and have never eaten any corals/fish/or other inverts. They can multiply fast though. I started out with three (one white one and two black/white bandeds). Now I have about 35 of these guys in my 10G. They also come out pretty often during feeding time.
If you want to see them you can try to place a piece of food next to those wavy arms (try to place it about .5"-1" away). Whenever a stray piece of food happens to land on my live rock (which almost never happens because my clown snatches it up) I often see a star reach for it. One of these days I will have to take a video of my stars walking across my sand/rock. Those guys are actually very fast and its cool to see how their arms move.
Oh and keep a lookout for them when you clean the tank. Mine come out pretty often during water changes also.
Yeah, I had a ton of those guys from the rock that I got from an established tank. When I first put the rock in there they went everywhere and especially liked the sand. Now they seem to like hiding in the rocks during the day and then coming out at night.
But you're right they seem to come out during water changes. Not sure why. They are cool little buggers.
But you're right they seem to come out during water changes. Not sure why. They are cool little buggers.
Are there any stars that won't eat the snails and hermits? I'm very interested in starfish but I don't want one if it will eat my whole clean up crew.
The red star posted earlier should be fine. A General Star (and they mean that as in "general" they don't have a name for it) tends to be fine. Linkias are also safe but they can be short lived...year is tops for many.
