Small starfish in sump

[ken123]

I don't have fuge, it's just a sump to circulate water. I have what looks like a few hundred, well alot, of tiny starfish in the sump. Not sure if they are brittle or serpent starfish. I do have a serpent startfish in the main tank. I do see some in the rockwork in the tank sometimes, but not that often. They are all less than an inch or so and white. I was going to clean the sump and pump but not sure now. Can I carefully remove them and put them in the main tank? I guess they came in as hitchhickers? Or could they be from my single serpent star?

look something like this...
baby starfish

 

[papagimp]

Mini-brittle stars, good scavengers. Shouldn't hurt to put sme in the main tank. But if there in your sump, probably in the main tank already as well. There not baby starfish by the way, that's about the size they get. Just tiny versions of their larger cousins.

 

[Konadog]

Ken, mini brittle star fish are usually picked up as hitch hikers. Watch your LR after a feeding, you may see many arms outstretched from the rock. They probably were in the water column and ended up in your sump. I would just leave them where there at, some will end up there anyways.

 

[ken123]

I do see them in my rock. I seek them out cause they look cool poking out. Was just amazed at how many are in the sump. It really needs to be cleaned and I am sure they would end up back in the sump after cleaning if I put them in the tank.

I had alot of small bristle worms, spaghetti worms in the tank at one time then I got this algae and all this life disappeared. Now I see all these stars. Wonder how they managed to survive through that long episode of algae? Or were they just eggs waiting to hatch?