Massive Brittle Star Spawning!!??!?!!

[Instant Tang]

Wow, I just saw something in my tank that I've never seen before. Literally every surface of the rock in my tank had brittle stars on it. They were thick, piled atop each other, everywhere. Many seemed to have their center discs hyperinflated and were releasing egg and sperm into the water column. It's only an 80 gallon tank, but there must have been thousands of these brittle stars. I normally see their tentacles poking out of my live rock, and occasionally save one from death by rescuing it form my berlin sock, but these guys were ALL out and not hiding.

I did a water change today and hooked up a new sump- would that have triggered this event in some way? What triggers a massive spawning like that? I've had my tank for about 8 years now...and I've never witnessed this before. I don't know if I should be worried, elated, passing out cigars, starting the planning for a brittle star infestation eradication program, or what!

 

[tmcrain]

Sounds good to me.... Pass them on to others, put me on the list.

 

[TheH]

Temperature fluctuations, salinity fluctuations, a variety of things trigger these kinds of spawning events. Should have taken some pictures for us!

 

[Kataro]

I've had one of these event happened when I transfered one of my rock to a new tank... that night they were all out and releasing milky stuff into the water column!

 

[goofyreefer]

Full moon?

 

[fishrule]

^^ LOL

Maybe this is a leap year?

 

[tmcrain]

Hows the Brittle outbeak going

 

[Lanie]

I love the little brittle stars. I save them too! Would love of pic of all the b.stars