Removing brittle stars from LR?

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Hi all,

Recently I was looking into my 'fuge pondering whether my inability to
keep macro alive was a good thing or a bad thing, when I noticed
hundreds of tiny arms waving at me... some brittle stars must have
spawned as I've got hundreds of tiny baby ones.
Thing is, I'd like to move some into the main aquarium, and possibly
raise some and sell them... but the only rock I had in the refugium was
bits & pieces of rubble. I don't really want to put it in the main
tank, and I don't know if the brittle stars would leave if I did.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get them out of the rock? I
tried giving a small piece a FW dip, but no luck.
Or should I just leave things be?

Cheers,
Stu

[Billy]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
| Hi all,
|
| Recently I was looking into my 'fuge pondering whether my inability
to
| keep macro alive was a good thing or a bad thing, when I noticed
| hundreds of tiny arms waving at me... some brittle stars must have
| spawned as I've got hundreds of tiny baby ones.
| Thing is, I'd like to move some into the main aquarium, and
possibly
| raise some and sell them... but the only rock I had in the refugium
was
| bits & pieces of rubble. I don't really want to put it in the main
| tank, and I don't know if the brittle stars would leave if I did.
| Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get them out of the rock? I
| tried giving a small piece a FW dip, but no luck.
| Or should I just leave things be?
|

Place the LR with the stars in the display for a day or 2. Many, if
not most, will move off in search of space that hasn't been picked
clean of food. You can then put the rock back in the fuge.

[Pszemol]

> wrote in message oups.com...
> Recently I was looking into my 'fuge pondering whether my inability to
> keep macro alive was a good thing or a bad thing, when I noticed
> hundreds of tiny arms waving at me... some brittle stars must have
> spawned as I've got hundreds of tiny baby ones.
> Thing is, I'd like to move some into the main aquarium, and possibly
> raise some and sell them...

I would rather bet these are tiny adult britle stars - common in the
refugiums - they never grow into a show-size stars available in stores.
The biggest I was able to see in my tank were 1" arm tip to arm tip.
Consider them rather a part of your cleaning/janitorial crew.

[RicSeyler]

Little tiny white ones with fuzzy arms?
If so that is about as big as they will get.
But they are great detriovours (sp)

wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Recently I was looking into my 'fuge pondering whether my inability to
>keep macro alive was a good thing or a bad thing, when I noticed
>hundreds of tiny arms waving at me... some brittle stars must have
>spawned as I've got hundreds of tiny baby ones.
>Thing is, I'd like to move some into the main aquarium, and possibly
>raise some and sell them... but the only rock I had in the refugium was
>bits & pieces of rubble. I don't really want to put it in the main
>tank, and I don't know if the brittle stars would leave if I did.
>Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get them out of the rock? I
>tried giving a small piece a FW dip, but no luck.
>Or should I just leave things be?
>
>Cheers,
>Stu
>
>
>

--
Ric Seyler

[[email protected]]

> Place the LR with the stars in the display for a day or 2. Many, if
> not most, will move off in search of space that hasn't been picked
> clean of food. You can then put the rock back in the fuge.

Sorry I probably should have been more clear - they are in the rock,
not on it, and are unlikely to leave unless REALLY hungry or they
outgrow the rock. I'm guessing they filter feed too. There's certainly
less detritus in the fuge than the display, and they haven't left their
rock.


Stu

[[email protected]]

> Little tiny white ones with fuzzy arms?
> If so that is about as big as they will get.
> But they are great detriovours (sp)

No, not like the one on Marc's page (www.melevsreef.com/id). They are
brown, banded, and with 6 arms. I'm fairly certain they're the same as
some others I've seen in the display - one in particular has arms at
least 6" long, and has never left its piece of rock (probably doesn't
have room to get out anymore).

I'll try to get some pics tonight.

Cheers,
Stu

[[email protected]]

Ok, I've got some pics...

A heap of them in a small piece of rock:
http://sswain.tripod.com/tank/inrock.jpg

I managed to gently break apart a tiny chip to remove this little
fella:
http://sswain.tripod.com/tank/star1.jpg
http://sswain.tripod.com/tank/star2.jpg

Showing scale - about 20mm long when stretched out:
http://sswain.tripod.com/tank/star3.jpg

It's interesting to note how the three legs that were kept inside the
rock haven't grown as much as the other three. I've seen a couple of
them on the glass in the fuge and they were the same.


And for something different... something that shouldn't have 6 legs:
http://sswain.tripod.com/tank/6legged.jpg
:)


Cheers,
Stu