Are there medium sized brittle stars you can buy?

[mndfreeze]

Looking for more biodiversity for my mostly invert mixed reef. I'd like to add a brittle star but I can't seem to find any that are specifically labeled as more medium sized species. Liveaquaria has a bunch of color morphs, some with different species names but they list them all as max size 10" or 1 foot. IMO half that size would be perfect.

Tank is a 24G aquapod. with a fair amount of rock in it.

Tank has a fire shrimp, tiger pistol + blue spotted watchman, hermits, snails, coral.

It will probably host a possum wrasse and MAYBE one more small fish, maybe.

Definitely will be hosting more inverts. Gaggle of sexy shrimp, porcelian crabs, pom pom crabs maybe. Depends on what all I can find.

Anyone know a place I can buy a species of brittle that doesn't max out at 10 inches? Or hell, even a species name I can use to search. lol.

Inverts are such a pain to buy in this hobby. Everyone loves fish fish fish. Inverts just get generic treatment.

 

[Reef noob_]

I recently snagged a few of the small (.5") stars from a local club member. They were living in his skimmer sponge that he simply dumped in a bag and gave to me. Maybe try asking around?


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[mcgyvr]

There isn't a brittle star that I know that would be suitable in your tank..
And quite frankly your tank is too small for most any star..
micro brittles would be fine but they won't get 5".. barely 1 or 2"

 

[mndfreeze]

Thats the first I've ever heard that for brittle stars. People keep even the big guys in 10G tanks and such. They don't exactly need a ton of room....

I found a red Caribbean species that supposedly maxes out at 4-6". 5 dollar brittle, 60 bucks to ship lolol.

I feel like this is one of those times where people collecting stuff for the trade just go hung ho collection any ole brittle star, and there might be a ton of different species that look almost exactly the same but max out and all sorts of different sizes, but we as end users never know that because they always just get sold as generic black brittles or whatever.

And yes, I know not to put any bat star shapes, sand sifters, or linkia in my tank.

 

[mcgyvr]

The last brittle star (just the typical black version) I had was close to 20" across and was only 4" across about a year or so before that.. They can grow fast..
Something 20"+ really can't be sustained properly in such a small tank IMO..
Most can easily get to the 12" or more size rather quickly..
Thats why I made that comment...

 

[Uncle99]

There isn't a brittle star that I know that would be suitable in your tank..
And quite frankly your tank is too small for most any star..
micro brittles would be fine but they won't get 5".. barely 1 or 2"

^^^^above^^^^^
IMO, Not suitable for your size tank, asking for trouble, likely will die

 

[Frogmanx82]

I have a purple brittle star that's been in my 90 for about 6 years. Its still just 6 inches tip to tip.

 

[mndfreeze]

This is all why I was making the thread and asking if anyone knew of a specifically smaller species and a place to find one. I *know* that not all brittle stars are going to be 10" or 20" at max size. I'm just having a hard time finding places that sell em that list their brittle stars as anything other then the generic family identifier.

Liveaquaria has their brittles sort of generically listed at max size 10" but have multiple species with the same information cut n pasted.

a 6" tip to tip brittle would be perfect.

I've already put out a message to the local reef clubs and facebook groups but everyone has the micro brittles, the itty bitty tiny guys that are less then a half inch across and only stick a leg out of a crack to catch food. While I want those guys, thats not what I'm looking for in this case.

 

[jambon222]

I have a lot of the small brittle stars which came in on a larger live rock. They are 2 inches max and seem to be reproducing. They are interesting to watch eating... when I feed the tank there arms pop out of there hiding spots and latch onto food as it drifts past. I am in Canada otherwise you would be welcome to a few.

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[Crooked Reef]

How attached will you get to the star? Do you consider it a pet that you want to keep it’s entire life or part of a clean up crew that is, for lack of a better phrase, devoid of any emotional attachment like a snail or hermit. If you want one to look at but don’t really care if it is always the same one get a small one and trade it in to your LFS for a smaller one every once in a while.