Baby Brittle Star

[RockingCricket]

I found a tiny white brittle star in my tank yesterday and am wondering where he might have come from. I haven't added any live rock for over 6 months so it is unlikely he came in as a hitch-hiker. I have only ONE large brittle star, not two. Does anyone know if they need a mate to reproduce? Surely he couldn't have mated with my linkia star.

 

[aresgod]

I found a starfish 6 months after I had added anything, He was so small I just missed him for a couple months.

 

[RockingCricket]

I hear that! This guy was only about 1cm in diameter and will no doubt become somebodies lunch - but then again, if he did come in as hitchhiker and has lasted this long, maybe he'll make it through.

 

[RockingCricket]

Sorry to ask again, but can anyone confirm whether or not a pair of starfish are needed for reproduction, or whether they can do it on their own? ...with all those arms *laughingc ....joking aside, serious question.

 

[Helena21]

I know nothing about saltwater or anything to do with it but i have read that they can detach parts of their body to make a whole new animal
heres the site
http://www.starfish.ch/reef/echinoderms.html
Scroll down a little bit until you come to the title 'ECHINODERMS', then look at the couple of paragraphs below the 5 pictures.

 

[RockingCricket]

Thanks Helena (a fellow Brit)*PEACE!*
I didn't find the info I needed on that site but you encouraged me to do a search on yahoo for "starfish reproduction" and I found the answer to my question. Starfish are either male or female and reproduce by releasing gametes into the water in the hope that they wil be fertilized by gametes from the opposite sex.
Sorry for not doing my own legwork sooner

 

[dbacksrat]

They're probably mini brittlestars (thus the one you see is full grown) and are common hitchhikers on live rock. You probably also have tons of other minibrittles that you don't know about.

 

[RockingCricket]

Found another new guy

Thanks dbacks. I hadn't thought of that. I haven't seen the little guy since (and haven't expected too).

I did find another new creature that I'd like to ask about. He looks very parasitic to me so has me a tad worried.

If I can describe it. It looked like some kind of larvae or something. It's about the size of 2 or 3 grains of rice. Pale pink in colour. Both ends taper to a wiggly point, about half the thickness of the body. There was a definate head end which looked like it had tiny legs, or feelers or something. It was able to propel itself through the water with a fast vertical snake-like motion and when it hit the glass it grabbed on and wriggled around.

Does he sound familiar to anyone? Anything to worry about? If he is a parasite then hopefully my cleaner wrasse or skarlet skunk will assasinate him.

I did get pictures but they don't help. Too small, too blurry.