Please Identify - Brittle Star or worm??

[vapor1080]

So my girlfriend and I were looking at our tank tonight and found these little worm like characters on a single piece of live rock. We have researched it a bit and found that it might be a brittle star.

I have never purchased a starfish of this type and this particular piece of rock was purchased from liveaquaria.com when i started my tank a year ago...

There are multiple arms, about three or four that I can see, but was only able to get these two arms somewhat clearly in the attached photo. Thanks for any help/info on this!

 

[falconut]

Looks like mini brittle stars to me. I believe they come in on LR.

 

[Berje]

they do look like mini brittle stars, but a better picture would help.

 

[Betta132]

Micro brittle star. Great little gunk-eaters, totally harmless as long as you aren't a piece of gunk. Gigantic ones are 2" across, including feelers, but they're usually lots smaller. You probably won't see them out, they usually just sit in holes.

 

[Calappidae]

Definitly a micro-brittle..

Actually that perticular one gets atleast 4-5 inches in diameter.. I got one that hitchhiked and he grew HUGE.. had the same exact leg pattern as yours. His center kinda makes a radioactive symbol if I remember correctly.. haven't seen his whole body in a long long time..

Not matter how big it gets, keep it

 

[faithenfire]

microbrittles

 

[vapor1080]

thanks guys! I actually found 2 more besides that one living around different parts of the tank., cant find the center of any of them yet though :hmm5:

 

[Nina51]

you probably have lots more than what you have seen. watch your tank when you feed the fish, that's when you will see all of the little arms waving around. i have quite a few of them in my tanks but i have never, ever seen anything but arms. or are they legs? lol

 

[vapor1080]

Yeah your right, thats when i see them the most. Im amazed they lived because i had a huge ammonia problem when i started my tank. Ordered the rock from liveaquaria and its amazing to me that they survived the chilly shipment and inital setup of the tank. But hey cant complain, always cool to find different life in the tank that you didnt buy....well technically i did lol