What is my brittle starfish doing?

I've got a new brittle starfish about 2 inches from tip to tip. Saw him out during the day on the side of a rock. It stood up on its legs and spewed out a milky substance then settled back onto the rock. It did this 3 times in about 15 mins then crawled back under a rock.

What is it doing? anyone?

 

Maybe a spawning event?

 

+1

That's how they reproduce, although it takes 2 for it to work properly.

 

spawning or poo? Probably the first because they have been known to reproduce in our tanks.

 

Elaborate...JK JK JK

 

I just saw a video a few days ago with a Brittle Star spawning, He was doing the exact same thing.

 

I picked up some frags from a friend, and there was 3 small ones on the rock he gave me. So you're saying that if I have a m/f pair, then I might have tons of little guys running around? I know they are cuc, but are too many bad?

 

Yes, and no.

Actually, you won't literally have tons- just like all the other CuC members, their survivability will depend greatly on available food supply.

 

I've not witnessed the spew you're describing but I figure they're doing something right in my tank somewhere as at any given time I've got several sets of little legs reaching out of various crevices in my LR... mostly little there is one set that belongs to a star that's probably 8-9 inches from tip to tip. Just moving some rocks around and temporarily took one out and put in my homer bucket and found two about the size of 50 cent pieces in the bottom of the bucket that I tossed back in.