brittle starfish spawning event

[Dave & Monica]

You know the small brittle starfish, apart of the clean up crew? I had a mass spawning event yesterday evening where I noticed after the MH lights went out; there were a few dozen climbing out on the corals. Then I noticed a few were shooting a cloudy liquid out. By the time the lights went out, there were more then a hundred climbing to the highest corals and the top of the tank. I never knew there were so many in there. I went down stairs to check out the sump/fuge/frag section and it was the same, just fewer numbers. After seeing this event, I sure hope there isn't a population explosion. Lastly, we saw a pom pom crab we bought over a year ago and hadn't seen him since. We thought it died or was eaten long ago. Interesting evening.

 

[moevilla]

That is awesome! I always like seeing new (or old) and different things in the tank. I have recently had a mysis shrimp explosion and my good white flatworms (eats the bad brown ones) that are in the sump have multiplied like crazy and I don't even have any bad flatworms! I wonder what they are eating, maybe pods or something. This is a great hobby...

 

[dv3]

sounds like a very cool experience

was there something that changed in your tank causing the spawning?

 

[mhaith]

Any way I can trade some frags for either some mysis, white flatworms or brittlestars? I am also looking for new, small pieces of live rock to repopulate some bacterial diversity?

Pics to follow.