Brittle star parasite???

[passthesalt]

Bought a green brittle starfish about 2 weeks ago. A few days after its arival a small hole appeared right in the center of its body. It slowly got a bit larger until it was almost the size of a pencil eraser. Then one night as I was feeding the the star, I noticed a worm like critter waving around halfway out of the hole. It looked for all the world like a small white maggot. I grabbed the hemostats and the star and proceded to try and grab the little bugger. I wound up giving it a good pinch and I think I actually cut it in half. The hole has since closed right up and the starfish seems to be just fine though it does have a scar. It never did seem stressed while the bug was there. It ate as normal and was active (well, as active as brittle stars usually are). Any ideas what this thing might have been??

 

[ophiuroid]

What color was the worm like thing? Brittlestars have tube feet, like those on their arms, that pass food into the mouth. Often, if a hole appears in the disk, these tube feet are visible and may wave around a bit. That is a possibility. Or did it look like some sort of bristleworm or something?

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Brittlestars!!
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