How do you trap bristle/micro serpent stars?

[rsteagall]

I have a few micro serpent stars in my tank. I'd like to move some to another one of my tanks. Is there an easy way to trap them?

On a side note/question... can they be cut a certain way to essentially make two? (dumb question?) If not, whats the quickest way to make them multiply?

 

[kmk2307]

Try using a turkey baster to suck some up and transplant them. You should acclimate them to the water of the other aquarium. Don't cut they, they will split on their own. They feed on nutrient rich detritus. Try feeding them some shrimp pellets. If you get a small glass dish and place that on the sandbed, you can trap many of the stars in it. You can feed them directly. As the glass gets colonized with a biofilm the stars will be able to crawl out. If you do this, you should also blow detritus out of the dish with a pipette or turkey baster every couple of days or so. Do you have a lot of detritus or a particular type of algae in the tank that the stars are reproducing in? What do you feed?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[ophiuroid]

Re: How do you trap bristle/micro serpent stars?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8186389#post8186389 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rsteagall


On a side note/question... can they be cut a certain way to essentially make two? (dumb question?) If not, whats the quickest way to make them multiply?

On moving, yeah, a turkey baster or even just moving some sand or rock should move some. Or macro algae....they seem to love that.

I don't recommend cutting these animals in half, personally. If in ideal conditions they will do this on their own, and often rapidly. It also depends on the species you have as to how they reproduce. But leave it up to them, IMO, to do so