Tiny brittle star explosion in refugium!

ReefDream · #1 08/15/2002, 01:40 AM

My refugium is wall to wall with a brick of caulerpa. I have one "port" to see into the refugium, and all I can say is that there is a TON of life that thrives in the algae "forest". I see thousands of pods, worms, photosynthetic flat worms, etc. I used to see a tiny brittle star here and there but it was rare. Tonight I counted 10 tiny brittle stars in a 10"x3" cross section. That's about one every 3 square inches, and I can only see into the dense calerpua about 1/4-1/2 inch! There must be hundreds of these in the bulk of the refugium where I can't see. Here's a picture (I can see four in this small section from the picture, but some were too tiny to see in the picture):

They are cool because they are always moving around. How big do these guys get?

Rock Anemone · #2 08/15/2002, 01:46 AM

WOW!!! NICE FUGE!!!

I don't know how big they get but, I do know they are very benificial!

Keep Up The GREAT Work!
Rock Anemone

ReefDream · #3 08/15/2002, 01:55 AM

PS - Before someone asks, the algae has never gone sexual, and sometimes I don't harvest until the refugium's size limits the growth. I do dose Kent's Iron supplement (before I started that the algae got sickly once and the Kent Iron stuff with a few water changes seemed to help turn it around). I have a Home Depot 65W flourescent about 1" above the water's surface on 24/7 for light. The effluent of my calcium reactor goes into the refugium and flows across the algae so the tiny bit of CO2 that comes out can be used by the algae (but it grew the same before the reactor as long as I dosed Iron). The flow through the refugium is 700 GPH but it is distributed by the algae so there are no real fast current shooting anywhere. I think super slow flow through a refugium is unnecessary since the algae brick itself drops the flow to near zero in its bulk if you grow it heavy like I do. I see tons of pods and they don't seem to mind the current at all.

Chelmon · #4 08/15/2002, 03:31 AM

would you be willing to part with some stars? I'm in LA so shipping would be super cheap, film container regular postage.
I lost all of mine to peppermint shrimps and micro hermit crabs.
Thanks

ReefDream · #5 08/15/2002, 11:33 AM

Chelmon, I don't mind sharing a few, but the trouble is that the stars are fast and deep in the algae. When I try to suck them out or get them in any way, they move deeper and away fast. Do you have any idea how I could get some out without destroying the refugium? They are pretty hyper.

The only thing I can think of is when I trim the refugium algae down with my scissors, some might come out with the algae. I could rinse them out maybe?

Gary Majchrzak · #6 08/15/2002, 11:42 AM

Don't rinse them out. {I have these guys by the millions.}
Gently shake them out of the algae.
Or just leave the algae in a container for an hour or two- they will start climbing out.

tyoberg · #7 08/15/2002, 11:56 AM

I got a pair of brittlestars as hitchhikers with some caulerpa I got at the LFS (seascapes)--haven't seen them since they went into the tank. I found one last night! I figure the chances of sighting 1 of only 2 of these dudes are pretty slim, so I'm thinking they've multiplied. Pretty quick little buggers!

justletmein · #8 08/15/2002, 11:58 AM

Or just ship the algea chunks w/stars included.

dc · #9 08/15/2002, 12:06 PM

I've got tons also! Mine have striped legs, and a lot of them come out at night

sven · #10 08/15/2002, 12:41 PM

My brittle star just looks like it has been through a tornado. It always seems to be having a "bad hair day". Other than that I think it is healthy and happy.

ReefDream · #11 08/15/2002, 01:15 PM

Chelmon, I'll get you some. E-mail me your address, and I can send some in a film canister sometime soon. Without predation pressure they'll multiply fast, so a half dozen or so should be enough.

Chelmon · #12 08/15/2002, 01:35 PM

hey thanks. sent email. I hope they come off as easy as Gary Majchrzak says.

ophiuroid · #13 08/15/2002, 03:32 PM

No worries about these guys becoming large brittlestars. The largest one's you see are the largest they get, about 3mm across the disk and with arms 11mm long or so. They are Amphipholis sp. , and they are self fertilizing hermaphrodites which brood their young, which explains how they can reproduce so quickly given favorable conditions.

There are other brittlestars that stay small and come in on live rock or algae. These tend to have striped arms, and sometimes 6 arms instead of 5. These are likely to be some species of Ophiactis. Further determination is impossible without microscopic examination, and even then, there are few who would be able to ID them. The 6 armed varieties reproduce by asexual fission (splitting in two and regenerating the missing half).

Looks like a might healthy refugium!

erik1202 · #14 08/15/2002, 04:14 PM

Did you ever buy any mini-stars from IPSF, Reefdream? I bought 6 of them a few months ago and I honestly cannot look anywhere in my tank or fuge without seeing dozens. There must be thousands from those original 6. At any rate, they are great to have.

ktwalker · #15 08/15/2002, 05:27 PM

Tyoberg, my tank is now full of these guys (I have CC) and I got two to start with (that I know of) as hitchhikers from Seascapes.

Ophiuroid, thanks for sharing that information. I learned something today.

kris

Gary Majchrzak · #16 08/15/2002, 10:43 PM

Both species of mini-brittlestars mentioned by ophiuroid are eaten by my two Macropharyngodon {leopard wrasses}.
That is- if they can dig one up or find one floating loose in the currents.
As justletmein stated, I usually just give away a mass of algae that contains a bunch of these 'stars from my 'fuge.
Most of my coral frags have some attached somewhere as well.

ReefDream · #17 08/15/2002, 11:01 PM

erik1202, yes, I did buy a kit like that from IPSF. I saw some before I ever got the kit, though. I also never seeded my refugium except for a single piece of live rock from the main tank. Most of the algae and life sprang from that one rock!

jonthefb · #18 08/15/2002, 11:59 PM

i also got my tank strated on these guys by ipsf and now they are everywhere. The other day i took a one square inch sample of my live sandbed in my display, adn counted four of these guys. and this was just the surface sand. I thnk looked at one under my binocular microscope, and talk about weird. Their tube feet look like no other tube feet i have ever seen. The poor patient had lost an arm also and only had a nub, but under the scope i could tell that it was regenerating. Because these guys dont have a planktonic phase like most other reef animals, they can populate a sand bed rather rapidly. One question for you all> do you think that a sand sifting star would be a predator of these guys. I would almost think that it would try but that the microstars would be faster than the ss star. just wondering
jon

SushiGirl · #19 08/16/2002, 12:04 AM

I was seeing a few of them in my tank that I put in about 3 years ago...now that my sand star has died, there's been a population explosion of them & pods. The sand star didn't decimate my sandbed, but it sure made a dent the couple of years it was in there.

Chelmon · #20 08/16/2002, 05:23 AM

To those who got the ipsf package, did you also get those micro hermits? I also bought a ipsf package a long while back and got the hermits in the live sand activator I think, and I'm sure it was either the hermits or the peppermint shrimps that ate the mini stars.

dc · #21 08/16/2002, 07:17 AM

I got a Fauna kit from Inland Aquatics with some and have gottone some on LR and coral. I didn't see them for a long time, now there a legs hanging out of the rocks every where. Maybe you haven't had them long enough. Mine are easy to catch at night as they move around more.

speedy5200 · #22 08/16/2002, 09:11 AM

Great looking fuge!!!! hey, can you, give us some details, like how big is it and does it have a dsb, and how long has it been setup??
Reef on!
speedy

Old Yeller Tang · #23 08/16/2002, 12:34 PM

ReefDream,

I've recently noticed a nice population of ministars and other fauna that I originally ordered through Inland Aquatics. I didn't think there were any around but after doing some rock work in my tank, I noticed a bunch of them, and just like your refugium, I've seen them all in the macro.

Icarus · #24 08/16/2002, 01:10 PM

I just purchased about a dozen of brittle stars for a new 135, but the previous tank (only a 58) had lots and lots of brittle stars. I pulled a minijet pump out for cleaning that had been in the tank for a month and there were a dozen of these critter in the slots, cover and even in the impeller housing of all places. Pretty cool to watch.