Montipora commensual brittle star

S

Serk

Anyone ever heard of a brittle star that's commensual with Montipora sp?

I first noticed this star fish hanging out on a Montipora Capricornis frag/colony almost 2 years ago. That colony was lost in the coppering incident last summer, the star fish moved to a green Montipora Digitata, was there for quite a while, until that Montipora was wiped out by a growing Green Bali Slimer...

Recently, I saw the starfish had moved into this Orange Montipora Capricornis... Other than the obvious morbidity of corals it's living in, but for other reasons, I can't see that it causes the coral it's in any harm, and it NEVER leaves it's host...

Anyway, just found it interesting, finally got a half decent pic of it, and figured I'd share...

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I have no idea if they are commensual or just taking advantage of a nice place to hang out. If you ever get over to Franks, check out one of the corals in one of the stand tanks in the middle of the store. I have no idea what kind of coral it is, some sort of encrusting coral that is about the size of a grapefruit and a deep neon green (awesome looking coral BTW). If you look closely, its got a number of holes in it and you see about a dozen or so legs hang out waving in the current. These are mini-bristle stars..... its a pretty cool site to see.

Do you target feed that monit or feed near it??

I have a couple of bristle stars that haven't moved in months once they found a place they enjoy. All I see are the legs coming out at night and one I have to look around the back of the tank to get a glimpse at.
 
Dave,
I really think it's commensual to Montipora sp, the different colonies it's lived in were on opposite sides of my tank, and the ONLY place I've ever seen this guy is on/in a Montipora colony...

Pretty cool 'lil guy!

Oh, and no I don't target feed at or near him...
 
@Serk wrote:
Dave said:
Yep, it is a cool critter and from the sounds of it, he may be one. So long as both are happy, that's all that counts.. and the fact you get to see yours!
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brian, just a theory but this maybe why. i have a brittle star and it loves to devour detritus. from my experience, usually once the cap grows large, the base has alot of dead spots where the detritus collects. maybe a connection there?
 
@celebrityovernight wrote:
brian said:
I tend to agree with this. I've found similar stars in pieces of Pocillopora and other SPS. They seemed to reside in the base of the coral where the dead spots are. Very cool critters.
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Definitely a possibility, but this guy has always been in the upper back regions (Outside) of the Monti Caps he's lived in... I.E. about as far from the center where detritus would settle as he could be and still be considered to be living on/in the coral...

When he lived on a Montipora Digitada, he was wrapped around the stalk of it about mid way most of the time...
 
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