The value of a water change

[Briney Dave]

my students and I were doing a normal water change on our 30, we have had a large number of snail egg hatchings so I had the kids panning through the waste water looking for baby snails when we found a least a dozen baby sea stars

the largest is no more than a mm across with arms thinner than threads. They are whitish in color and we think are the spawn of a hitch hicker from more than a year ago. Two students have claimed to have seen a quarter sized mini brittle that is also whitish in color.
I would pass out cigars but with the anti smoking laws I would most likely end up in prison

good thing we used a white bucket or we would have never seen them

 

[stevestank]

bad stars

bad stars

Save the cigars. Those little star fish need to be plucked out of your system. Do a google search on "asterina stars"


http://www.wetwebmedia.com/asterinafaqs.htm

 

[Tbohinc]

Sounds Like a good thing to me if the arms are thin and all the same size sounds like mini Brittle Star

 

[Briney Dave]

the arms are very thin (thinner than threads) not the one of two common small, more normal star shaped critters. One of those is ok and the other a coral eater at times. (for sure not the one on wet media)
these are either brittles or serpents

thanks for the link though

Briney

 

[Jamokie01]

FYI, I have hundreds ,if not more, of "asterina" stars in my tank, and have yet to have a coral casualty. They crawl all over my softies, lps and sps and harm nothing. Theyre no more harmful than the "deadly flatworms" I got in my system a few years ago.

 

[Briney Dave]

From what I have read (I hate to pass along stories without direct experience or research) but from what I have read there are at least two species of those tiny stars one is known to eat at least some species of corals etc while another appears to be reef safe and unclear as to what it eats.

I am pretty sure that I don't have either of those but a species of mini brittle

With a little bit of luck I will be getting a species yet to be named/described of mini brittle to do a little bit of research on. Of course they will be isolated from corals until I learn about their feeding behaviors ect. but willing to pass some on if they are succesful and appear reef safe

 

[GSMguy]

i think some of that old wet web media stuff s just assumption,

maybee the corals the asternas were eating were already dying i have never seen them eat anything in my tank.

 

[Briney Dave]

Not sure, Calfo is pretty good about keeping things up to date.
in any event I am safe with what I have in my 30 and pico tank (moved a couple into it)