Starfish Hitchers

[Anonymous]

I have at least 5-6 of these guys in one rock in my nano that apparently hitchhiked in at some point. When I first noticed them they were tiny, legs like dental floss but as you can see they are growing. They are some kind of brittlestar I think, any ideas on how big they are going to get and should I be worried they will climb out of the tank and strangle me one night in my sleep 8O

Seriously, I have so many of them I'm getting a bit worried so any ID ideas? Sorry for the crappy pic, but they are seldomly that visible and I took it without cleaning the glass. The chalice frag they are under in the pic is on a 1.5" frag plug for scale.

 

[Brian5000]

Not completely sure, but it looks like the one I have. I have one or two as hitchhikers when I first got my live rock. They never grew much bigger than what yours are now and nothing important has ever gone missing.
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BMW Nazca C2

 

[kgross]

Don't worry about them. I have some tanks with thousands of them in it. They will grow to about 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter. They are just scavengers like the larger ones ( only they don't get big enough to ever catch a fish).

Kim

 

[Anonymous]

thanks! That's a relief.

 

[Anonymous]

You always get the cool safe ones.

 

[Anonymous]

It would take literally THOUSANDS of them to strangle you in your sleep.


A few hundred can crawl in your mouth and block your airway while you sleep though...




Unfortunately for you, I think the common name for the species you have in your tank is the "Teamwork Star".

 

[Anonymous]

:shock: cantsleepstarfishwilleatmecantsleepstarfishwilleatme cantsleepstarfishwilleatme cantsleepstarfishwilleatme

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but again, with your luck, they'll also be union and refuse to do anything until they get a fat contract.

 

[Anonymous]

:lol:

 

[SlipperMan]

Mini or micro brittle stars, whatever people are calling them.

I have quite a few in my tanks as well and welcome them.

At the last frag swap I attended, I kid you not, people were selling them for $1 each.