Baby star fish

We got one brittle star fish a long time ago and maybe for the past month we've had problems with worms. It never seemed they ever did any damage so we ignored them and just recentely I pulled out my uv pump and there was this very little star fish and it raised the question that if the worms are actually star fish tentacles. I only know how to care for a star fish, nothing else. Do star fish carry their baby's? How much do they breed at one time? Could the star fish have gotten pregnant at the store? I'll post pictures of the supposedly worms and the small star fish when I get to my computer But for now does anyone have any ideas?

 

Mini Brittle Stars, common, they hide very well.

Completely different animal than the larger Brittle Stars.

Star fish reproduction is done by broadcast spawning and lateral fission.

 

there are these little things I've had before that resemble a baby star fish (do not look like a brittle star but rather a typical starfish shape). They multipled quite a lot and I think I figured out they were some sort of nuisance star actually. I kind of liked them and then they gradually just disappeared slowly from my tank....

 

Ive Seen those before in My biocube and they soon disappeared too. The small one I saw wasn't the same color but it looked just like the brittle star just a lot smaller, 2 and a half centimeters at the most. And when I moved the pump it moved just like a brittle does. I've never seen the ones your talking about move before.

 

You're right, they don't move fast. Maybe they are little babies!!

 

they are microbrittle stars. Like said above, harmless and great detritus eater.

 

now if they are white, shelled starfish that has an odd number of legs, those are astrenia stars. If they look like little baby stars then they are microbrittle stars.

Both are usually harmless.......however I had some astrenia stars plow through my multi-colored sympodium recently!

 

I did see the post about micrco stars. I just think it makes things so much better if they're babies