Brittle star found in my overflow - 3 month follow up.

HowardCath

New member
Late last December, I was startled to find tentacles reaching up as I reached down into my overflow box to change some filters. See the original thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1277767

Since then, I had not seen anything of the brittle star, with its remaining 2 legs. I presumed it probably died, but I thought that just maybe it was living an underground existence. One morning, about 2 weeks ago before the tank lights came on, I saw him up at the top corner of the tank! I quickly grabbed the camera as he fled from the room lights. He dropped down onto the netted rubble bowl (where I was trying to get my new mushrooms to attach) and scrabbled into the gobie hole.

My little diamond gobie just watched without any apparent distress. In the 3 months since the original sighting, the brittle star had already regrown the 3 lost legs. The 2 original legs seemed a bit shorter. This week, a new hole appeared in the sand on the other side of the tank. I'm not sure who made it, or whether the gobie and starfish might still be roomies. Haven't seen him since.

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There's no telling how many are in the overflow at the critter. I always see the legs of one or two sticking out.
 
Very Good Catch with the camera! I need to park my camera near the tank and ready to shoot. Excellent series Howard, thanks for sharing

Norman
 
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