How do serpent starfish reproduce?

[davethej]

I have a maroon serpent starfish my wife and son bought me about a month ago. Today after a water change I found 10-15 little serpents crawling around 1 particular rock. Nothing new has been added, no new rock in 2 years... how do they reproduce?

Thanks

 

[insanefishguy]

They contract their bodies and release either sperm or eggs. I have videos of mass spawn events of mini brittles as well as my larger green one. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/OwrExeGNqvQ
http://youtu.be/xaiuTq6iu0k

 

[Betta132]

My guess would be the tiny ones are microbrittles who came out of hiding because you disturbed them. Microbrittles are a separate species.
Do you have pics of the baby ones?
Many starfish reproduce that way, as do urchins and sand dollars. You can't have a pregnant starfish, if that's what you were wondering.

 

[davethej]

Here you go.

 

[Calappidae]

They're just microbrittles hitchhiking in your live rock There's hundreds more probably, they're all benefical.


First post describes how they spawn.

 

[DEA Coral]

Cool stuff.

 

[hotelbravo]

Do these microbrittles grow any larger? I suspect by their name that they do not..
I saw one on the glass at my LFS yesterday and they let me have him.

 

[Calappidae]

Usually they stay withen the 1-2 inch range max.. but I got one hitchhiking brittle star that reached 14 inch diameter last I've seen it out fully.