Love is in the air?

[finsurgeon]

What's going on here? Last night after lights out my rose BTA spawned, pouring out his/her gametes and thoroughly clouding my water (to the delight of my filter feeding corals and whatever fish were awake to enjoy the feast). I noticed several serpent stars had climbed to the peaks of various rocks and were "tenting" more than I had seen before. I did not see them spawn, but now in light of tonight's behavior by all three "elegant sea stars" (ophiomastix variabilis), it seems that is what they were up to as well. All 3 elegant brittle stars are as high as they can climb, pouring out their love for each other. I wonder if they can be determined to be male or female, and I wonder what the trigger is for these events - moon, water parameters, other chemistries? I don't have "moon lights" or any other variable lighting, and I can't see anything going wrong in the tank - 215 gallon mixed reef with lots of fish and every kind of invert. My skimmer cleared last night's bioload with no problem.

 

[Calappidae]

I recall you reading another thread on someone's banded brittle spawning. Some animals have the natural instinct to breed as a certain time. Apparently this is breeding time for anemones, stars, and maybe even corals. (some corals release eggs in the water only on a certain date once a year, I heard it on a nature documentary) I have neither of those animals so I couldn't tell you I don't notice anything I already have spawning, neither are the few corals I have either.