stars in chaeto

Just noticed one of these little guys in each one of my three balls of chaeto. Any idea what kind of stars they are? Do they pose any threat to anything in the tank? Coral, pods, macro, etc.? Also, can I expect that they'll reproduce and spread to the DT? Or are they probably already in the DT and I just don't know it?

BTW, sorry about the picture quality. I had a hard time getting it to focus.

Thanks for the help!

 

HAHA!!! you got a brittle star. mini brittle star probobly. wont get bigger than a nickle overall. I was never so lucky myself..... VERY good scavengers of detrius. he may look creepy but he'll keep your tank spit spot. they mainly only come out at night time.

 

um im not quit sure how or when they reproduce but if you see three then there are probobly more.

 

Man I literally have hundreds of these things in my fuge. They just keep multiplying and multiplying. Theres close to 100 living in my cheato mound and more than that living on the mud floor and just everywhere. They are my fuge's MVPs and between them, the flatworms, pods and stomatella's (theyre multiplying in the fuge like crazy as well) its really become a nutrient and decompositional powerhouse. I imagine they reproduce proportionally to available nutrients but I cant really help that, upstream in the first section of my fuge I have a Xmas Tree Worm/Porites/Xenia display and I have to feed them nutrient/phosphate rich foods. These stars help tremendously in consuming the leftover food. Consider yourself lucky to have em!

 

this is very true.. when I turn on the light you can see them on the surface of the cheato as if sunning themselves.. err, in darkness. As soon as the light hits them they start climbing down the spaghetti like rungs on a ladder.

 

I love these guys.. moved a lot from my fuge to the DT. Came with my chaeot also. They are micro brittle stars.. my fuge looks cleaner than my DT.. so I started moving some into the DT. They reproduce rapidly.. I see them drop arms all the time.. so those arms will grow a new star!

 

When I setup my fuge a year ago I bought a small ball of cheato and it had 1 of these stars....now I have hundreds in my fuge and lots in the DT as well. They help out quite a bit with the clean up.

 

Id love to have some of those,maybe someday Ill be lucky enough to have some hitchike in

 

I have tons of little brittle / serpent stars in my chaeto. They're a good thing to have

 

HA , i was just gonna make a post asking if anyone sits and watches thie chaeto >,< i spend alot of time watchin the thing crawl with life :O) but , i had just noticed a little brittle star like that and thought i'd post about it no need aparently !