serpent stars...

F

fangeo

ok, I do not have a great understanding of serpent stars...hope someone here can help me out. Last night, I had just finished setting up my new refug..(post pictures later) I turned off my lights and was about to go to bed. Don't laugh I know everyone here does this!! I got back up and wanted to look in the tank...so i grabbed my flash light and went to look. What I saw freaked me out a little!!! about 25-35, quarter to half dollar sized green/dark green or green/black serpent stars spawning...or atleast what i think was spawning... for all i know it could have been a mass pooping this lasted for about 15 mins then poof all disappeared. Now...i have not added anything new....in a very long time...so these little guys have to be from rock i got almost a yr ago. I guess my question/concern is .... i know just enough to be worried if these guys grow up to be big guys!!!!! But given its taken this long for me to even see them!!! Is this a species that stays small and i don't have worry about them sneaking up on my sleeping fish and eating them???? If not.... how do you capture 25-35 of them I have never sen before!!! LOL
 
As far as I know, there's only one species of serpent star that are known fish eaters- they're the olive colored ones with yellowish spines. Pics will help.

On a related note, those of you who know Susan (Ophiura on forums) will be happy to hear that she'll be giving the presentation for the December meeting. She is _the_ expert on brittle / serpent stars and other starfish.
 
Hey hey no plugs in my post!! LOL :) JK...cool...

yeah these are little guys and alternate green/dark green or green /black...down the legs.. and there center looked like a pepermint candy (design wise...not color
:)

I will try and get pics...but considering I have never ever seen them before.....in over a yr and I spend a lot of time looking in there at night with a flashlight....I doubt i will get a pic anytime soon...Ill look on google for a pic.
 
That would be cool to have.. Ophiura can confirm whether they're good / bad.. but having a species that large that also breeds in our tank could be a wonderful thing- imagine propagating / distributing them instead of taking them from the wild.
 
Very cool.. when you say quarter to half dollar size.. was that including legs, or no?

To get a pic, you might wait til lights out, then put some food in the tank.. krill with garlic seems to rouse every single brittle / serpent star in my tank.
 
that includes the legs.... the body centers couldn't have been bigger than a pencil erasers... I will try that... funny part was they where all together one top of the highest rock... some where on top the highest snail... LOL but
and they would raise up and and this red milky stuff would come out... I was going to do some research and see if I could learn anything. I keep my water temp about 75-77 everything seems to do so much better...I have noticed a huge explosion in small creatures since i lowered the temp from 80. I wonder if thats what is bringing them out?? I will try your food ideas and see what happends...
 
Ahh, okay, that small.. I've got tons of those that I see legs sticking out of crevices in the rock. I've never seen a mass spawning event from them though- that sounds exactly like what it is, though. I've seen that same behavior with bristle worms, stomatella snails, and even urchins- just never serpent stars.
 
I have some of those same starfish in my tank. I think they come in as hitch hikers on live rock. I didnt notice them until after about 6 months when I had first set my tank up. Whenever I add a coral frag and have to glue a frag to a rock they start to come out in search of water.
They look like baby brittle stars to me, But iI havent had any problems with them. Someone at one of the lfs told me that they aid in cleaning up uneaten foods.

Kenyon
 
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