What kind of starfish is this???

[Chicagoreef2016]

So this must have hitchhiked on some frag I brought in over the last year, but in looking closely I have maybe a hundred of these things creeping around the bottom on my tank on my rockscape at this point (great to watch crawl around). They are the size of half of my pinky nail.

I am told they are harmless and typically present in well balanced tanks, is this true and anyone have a name/species for them?

Cheers!

 

[Cymonous]

Mini brittle star

 

[Daddi0]

We have so many of those. Very cool and kinda cryptic.

 

[billdogg]

+1

A very important part of your CUC

 

[Uncle99]

Brittle star, serpent star, yup, good for CUC, may irritate some corals as it quite fast when food is dropped in. No problem.

 

[Chicagoreef2016]

Thanks for the info. They are great to watch, another great little surprise as I in now in year 2 of this hobby. My cleaner shrimp are the bigger challenge stealing food from my corals....

 

[jlmawp]

My cleaner shrimp are the bigger challenge stealing food from my corals....

What I have been doing lately to combat this, is to give the cleaner shrimp a nice chunk of raw shrimp that he can hold on to in his mouth, completely pre-occupying him. Once he has it, he usually retreats to an arch or behind the rock to eat it. That gives the corals enough time to safely move the food inward. Sure, he'll probably poke and prod a bit later, but at least he won't be able to steal it.

 

[Chicagoreef2016]

What I have been doing lately to combat this, is to give the cleaner shrimp a nice chunk of raw shrimp that he can hold on to in his mouth, completely pre-occupying him. Once he has it, he usually retreats to an arch or behind the rock to eat it. That gives the corals enough time to safely move the food inward. Sure, he'll probably poke and prod a bit later, but at least he won't be able to steal it.

Good to know, do you just use a piece of frozen shrimp from the grocery store?

 

[jlmawp]

Good to know, do you just use a piece of frozen shrimp from the grocery store?

Yep. I thaw it out for a few minutes in tank water first.

Also, whereabouts in Chicago? That’s where I am

 

[Chicagoreef2016]

Yep. I thaw it out for a few minutes in tank water first.

Also, whereabouts in Chicago? That's where I am

Downers Grove. You? Which stores do you like to go to? I like Reefwise probably the best.

 

[mikenh77]

Downers Grove. You? Which stores do you like to go to? I like Reefwise probably the best.

Yeah, I think reefwise has the best selection. Aquapros is good too. Seven seas is decent, I Mainly love the staff there. Beyond the reef is ok, advanced aquatics closed. But those were my main ones.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[jlmawp]

I'm in Wicker Park in the city. Lovely weather we're all having :/

My favorite LFS used to be a local one called New Fish. Great little place with lots of inverts and a big frag tank with all kinds of goodies. Went out of business 8 months or so ago

I haven't been to Reefwise yet, but it sounds like I need to make a trip soon.