I saw a bristleworm on one of my frags tonight. I did a freshwater dip and a tiny serpent starfish fell off. Any thoughts on how this happened?
you got it as a hitch hiker on something or you had a starfish give birth. it has happened in my tank and when i got live rock from someone. i am up to 7 that i have in tank and sure many more i cant see.
That’s what i was thinking. I didn’t know if this was a bad thing or not. I have another 1 or 2 i can see. It was just a huge surprise when i saw the starfish.
Quick - guess who is going to say:
“This is one of the reasons you should QT EVERYTHING”
???
hummmmmmm could it be…JON?
HAHA, yeah not all of us can have 40 QT tanks around the house though. It sounds like just a mirco brittle star. I have lots of them, good for the clean up crew.
I’ve got about 3 of those fellas. I made a post about them while back, the general consensus was they aren’t bad and part of the clean up crew. One just hangs out in a rock of mine and sticks his arms up for food.
I’ve decided to stick with the bristle worms. they seem to eat a lot.
I like my bristle worms, good crud eaters, and hardly ever see them. i keep and cultivate several types of micro star fish. also good little scavengers. all part of my clean up crew.
latelyi have found 5 long, like 6-8 inch long bristle worms in one tank, living under a big rock. when i touched them they stuck a zillion little bristles into my finger, like fur. so the 4 i caught right then are gone. I still see the fifth one now and then, and will catch him to. the little guys, bicolor, pink/brown are just fine. but when any type can stick me, they are toast. I dont car how much crud they can eat. they might have been the dreaded fire worms. not sure. a bit reddish on the white bristles. other than those, the rest are pretty good tank mates.
You’ll hardly find any corals from DPA that don’t have them. It’s Ken’s fault! He insisted on bringing in tons of beneficial micro fauna over and over again until they started reproducing in our tanks! The result! Well probably the healthiest LFS tanks in the state.
It probably helps a little bit when I bring in LR as well filled with little critters. If you pick up any rock in my two of my tanks you’ll probably find 8-10 star fish. All together I probably have three… maybe four hundred star fish.
Let me see if I can find a good picture for you…
Here we go. Last march these guys fell off my rocks as I was moving from one tank to another:
Click on the photos to look really close. 
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If you have a couple of them, you may soon have more. A lot of fish will eat them though, so it will depend on you’re unique tank.(you’re feeding and other tank mates mostly) I believe I may have had one hermit crab in the tank at the time I collected these.
Oh yeah! I love the little criters. and collect biodiversity. as long as they are reef safe. they add to the tank and fun to search for after dark.
Hey Jon,
Any chance I cna get a few of those if you decide to thin the heard?