The Invert from the Montipora

Hello 3REEFERS!
I finished acclimating my Montipora Frag and found a little critter. It came out of the Montipora as I was acclimating it. It is fairly small and fits on my pointer finger nail with spare room. The arms have white bands and it is a dark maroon to brown or black color. Here is a picture of it:

(There is an additional picture of it in my frag thread.)

I was thinking of adding it to my tank since it seems fairly harmless and is not the 'infamous' Green Brittle. What do you guys think I should do?

-Diana

 

We have hundreds if not thousands of those little guys in our systems because they have no predators in our holding/grow out tanks...mini or micro brittle stars...as far as I know good little cleaners and harmless.

 

I've got a bunch in my 29g. Seem harmless to me. Hardly ever see them really.

 

CalPhotos: Ophiocomella sexradia

 

If you have one, you probably have others. They are awesome clean up crew members and will reproduce if there's sufficient detritus to feed on.

 

They are awesome cleaners and you probably have a lot in your tank already!

 

Not many, but One.

inwall75 and kcbrad; nope, I do not have many of these in my tank. In fact, I believe this is the first one I have.
Keep in mind it came from my Montipora frag as I acclimated the frag in a bucket. However, it would be really neat to have these guys as part of my cleanup crew.

The star has already been added but when I first placed it, it got attacked by the amphipods. After some agonizing moments, they left the star alone and I was relieved. The star continued on its voyage along the glass wall, as if nothing had happened, while I was left in a sigh of relief and happiness for not witnessing the tiny star mutilated by the amphipod.

I have not seen it since then but hope that it does well.
Thanks to all for your replies!
-Diana

 

Diana Peace, Heart, Happy face (hehe ;D). Congrats, as others have said they are a great part of your cleanup crew. They hide very well, in pores of LR and such, so, likely you have a few others that you can't fine and in time will have lots of others

 

Hopefully I have some more. This has been the first that I've seen so far (and it came from my Montipora frag. Good little bugger at hiding because I really analyzed the frag and not once did I see it).

So far, I have not seen it; the last time was when it was climbing my aquarium's glass. But, my rock does have a lot of nook and crannies, so maybe it is hiding extremely well, just like it was in the Montipora. Plus, it is extremely small.

Thank you all again!
-Diana