Where did this starfish come from?

[kdejour]

I have a 75 gallon reef tank. About four months ago I went to my lfs and purchased a fancy serpent starfish and a green brittle starfish. The reason for this thread is the other day during my feeding regimine I added some cyclopeze. That's when it gets interesting I saw these little arms reaching out from the rock to catch it's food. It looked like a blaack brittle from what I could see. It never came out of the rocks yet I could see it searching for food. I though at first it was my green brittle starfish then it came out like usual getting it's food. The fancy star came out also. The strange thing is the only new rock that I added was some rock from a friends tank. I have not added rock before that in over a year. The rock from my friends could have been the solution but we referred to his tank as the dead sea. He gave up on the hobby over two years ago. The tank was completely dead and he never had any inverts. I brought his rock home and went thrugh the curing process for two months I know that sounds like a long time. I did this because he used copper in his water so I know nothing was alive in his tank. I also checked to make sure there was no copper (I did do tests). It's kind of one of those weird things I guess. Any suggestions? I'm stumped. I do have a crocea clam some zoo's, starburst, candy cane and quite a few different shrooms. Sorry this was so long. I'm not mad that it's there just wondering where it came from. Thanks guys :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

there are usually tens, if not hundreds, of small brittle stars that come in with live rock-check out the hitchiker's faq :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Many species of small brittle stars live amongst the rock crevices in our tanks for years and are rarely see, They feed mainly on detritus, dead animal flesh and other uneaten foods. Usually people find them when they remove live rock or tear down their tanks.

mario

 

[Anonymous]

My first guess would be the Ocean..again just a guess :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

BTW I second the LR theory and am more inclined to believe you had it before the new rock...In my mantis tank i found a baby brittle too..It eluded me for months...I had no idea it was in there but hey it is...

 

[kdejour]

I guess that was it. I guess he took a long time to finally appear. I'm glad it's there it seems to be a sign of a good tank if he has been in there gorf that long and survived. Thaks guys.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/