Brittle Starfish Reproduction

[jbrownacu]

I have hundreds of little white dots on my glass in my new tank. These things seem to have tenticles on them and are about the size of this period >>> . Haha! They are not pods, and they move very slowly if at all over a days time.

Anyways, I was just curious how they reproduce and if this could be what these things are on the glass. I have tons of the green and black brittle starfish that came in/on the LR, so I'm assuming this is what they are....and hoping they are not some sort of pest. I can't get a picture because my camera cannot do micro shots.

Thanks for the help,
Josh

 

[greenbean36191]

Different species of brittle stars either reproduce by fission or by broadcast spawning. What you're seeing are probably hydroid jellyfish, and completely unrelated.

 

[jbrownacu]

are they something i should be worried about?

by the way, nice icon...i know ive seen her somewhere...

 

[Aliie]

I have what appears to be about 20 or so brittle starfish "looking" things. I have never had so don't know if they have just been growing from the live rock.
Can someone tell me where to find a site that shows the very small stars? I want to see if these are brittle stars or something I need to worry about.

 

[dc]

I don't know of a site, but possibly they've just been in your rocks. I can usually see only the legs hanging out at night. There are color variations, and even white.

 

[jbrownacu]

those are the ones that i have all in my live rock, but i was more interested in these things on my glass. ill just have to wait and see if they get bigger to tell what they are.

 

[dc]

Check Greenbean's reply.

 

[Aliie]

Debi the last pic with it on the snail looks most like the ones I have. The hard part is that I only see the legs and not a body.
They seem to stay inside most crevases. Like in the heater head, holes in the rock ect. After reading this I was looking more closely and it seems as if I have way more thn I though originally. More like hundred or so. IS this possible?
Should I try to pull one out to see what it is?

 

[dc]

I'm sure they are the same thing, and you could have a bunch of them. I know I do. I just can't get good pics of them in the rocks. They blend in too much. The first ones are just real close pictures, and they only reason they were out is my heater malfunctioned and everything came out. I wouldn't worry about them at all.

 

[Scoobydude825]

How fast do Brittle stars reproduce? I had one that I saw on my live rock and now I have about 20...its been about a month. Do the reproduce that fast or did the rest just slowly come out of hiding?