In my aquarium?

[Ron Reefman]

One of the coolest things that has ever happened to me in my almost 15 years in the hobby, happened today. I was doing some maintenance in my 125g DT (I have an algae issue). I went to grab a wad of hairy algae off a rock that has a couple of RBTA’s on it. As my hand got close, I saw something move and disappear into the sand next to the rock. It happened so fast and I wasn’t really looking at the sand, but at the algae on the rock, that I had no idea what it was. I took a small frag out of the tank and went to the spare room where I do fragging and other maintenance. When I came back out with the cleaned up frag I looked to see if there was anything there… or if my mind was playing a trick on me. But no, it wasn’t my imagination. It has a central disk that’s about 1” or a little bigger and has 7 to 9 VERY branchy legs that when fully extended make it about 3” to 4” in diameter. I didn’t get to see it very long as it disappeared into the sand again pretty quickly, but I was pretty sure it was a basket star! BTW, I've NEVER put a basket star in my tank on purpose! It must have hitchhiked in on something I collected in the Florida Keys or the beaches of Sanibel! Here is a very short You Tube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIIDN8VmIB0&feature=youtu.be


Here is a still of it.



And the next time it was out I got a real treat! I was ready to shoot more video and I got over a minute of it eating! The video is a bit choppy as it had to be reduced in size to email from my cell phone to my computer. Here is a 90 second You Tube video, I hope you enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClunEJfVF7M&feature=youtu.be

 

[mndfreeze]

Not sure if its my work firewall or not, but youtube says that video is not available for both

 

[Hadla]

Unavailable for me too

 

[Ron Reefman]

I changed settings, they should work OK now.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Wow, that's pretty cool!

 

[Jekerry]

Awesome!

 

[mndfreeze]

I don't think that's a basket star? I think what you have there is a sea cucumber underneath your sand sticking its feeding tentacles out, and when you scared it it retracted down.


https://www.whatsthatfish.com/fish/magnum-sea-cucumber/1764

 

[Ron Reefman]

mndfreeze, you may very well be right. Looking at photos and feeding videos of both the basket star and the Neothyonidium magnum sea cucumber, they are very similar looking above the sand. But I didn't find any info about a basket star retracting away like the one I have in the first video. And at the same time I saw only one photo of this sea cucumber completely out of the sand so I could see it's main body.

It was easy for me to believe I had a hitchhiker basket star from the Keys or Sanibel as I do collect an occasional wild critters and some of them are unfamiliar or at least uncommon in most home aquariums. But the sea cucumbers I've collected locally don't feed like this and the data I found (thank you very much for the link BTW!) say it's an Indo-Pacific species. I suspect it may have come in on something I bought, like a coral. But it would almost have to have been in a very early stage of development and quite small... but it's possible.

It's currently in a tank with old sand that is only 1" to 2" deep and has become crusty in areas. I think the crusty surface is due to higher Ca levels... maybe? I also have 90% of my live rock sitting up on egg crate platforms that sit 1" to 2" above the sand on some pvc pipe legs. So there is a lot of exposed sand surface that is under the live rock. I have seen under the platform when doing some moving of the smaller rocks along the edge that hide the egg crate. There are tons of small feather dusters and sponges in the dark and hanging down from under the live rock and egg crate. This critter could very well have spent most of it's time under there!

My other tank, a 50g cube, shares a sump with the 125g tank. But I have recently cleaned out the crusty sand and added lots of new sand so I have about a 3" to 4" deep sand base and only a few rocks. If and when I see this critter again, I think I'll try to collect it and move it to the 50g cube with a deeper and softer sand bed.

 

[mndfreeze]

I don't think its necessarily that species I linked, that was just the closest google image I was able to find quickly lol. The reason I brought it up is specifically because of the way it sucked into the sand. As far as I know, a feather star doesn't really have much of a trunk or body underneath the sand in a way that it could pull itself under quite like that, and that quickly, at least for most common species that would make their way into our reef tanks.

Baby cucumbers are really common hitch hikers and have high survivability in our reef tanks when small it seems because they do pop up quite a bit. Next time you see it I would definitely quickly try to dig it out of the sand and check it out. Or you could just leave it as its a good cleaner and most likely will survive just fine even with a small sand bed. Many species with those same sorts of feathery arms live in rock, coral and on top of sand as well.

Definitely post more pics/video if you do! I love seeing all the weird stuff people find in their tanks.

 

[ajoe]

Still very cool. Luv surprises.