Red Brittle star?

[markdem]

Hi everyone,

Just had a look at my tank after light out, and noticed this.
From my searching on the web, I think it is a red brittle star and should be OK in a reef tank. It is about 60mm across when expanded, but it went inside the rock by the time I found the camera and got focus in nearly no light so it is a bit hard to tell from the photo. I did not get to see how many arms it had before to "ran" away. No idea where it came from!
Can anyone confirm for me?

Thanks

Mark

[SecretiveFish]

I think you are right. It looks very similar to the red brittle star I have.

[briankmarsh1980]

You are good .
Greens are the bad ones

[Ron Reefman]

Mark,
I've seen quite a few brittle stars, both in LFS and snorkeling the Caribbean, and I don't think I've ever seen one quiet like that one. If you can get a good photo of it, I'd love to see it. The red & white undersides of the arms is cool and the spines are longer than most I have seen. Very cool. I hope it works out for you. I have seprent & brittle stars in all my tanks.

[markdem]

Cool, just wanting to make sure my research was correct.

If it ever comes out in full view, I will get a photo of it.

Thanks

Mark

[snorvich]

Interesting animal. How did you acquire it?

[markdem]

Hi Snorvich,

No idea where is came from. The tank is only 10 weeks old, so it could of been on the live rock and just hiding all this time.

I hope it come back out tonight so I can get a better photo.

Thanks

[Voodoodauley]

I got an orange and white hitch hiker star in one of my live rocks. I only spotted it for about 30 seconds during a feeding once... it only stuck it's arm out for a second and then disappeared back into the pour of the rock... makes me wonder what other kind of life is in that rock!

[billdogg]

It may very well be a small crinoid or basket star.
jm.02

[markdem]

Success, better photo taken. Well as good as I can in such low light.
It almost looks like something scarey in the dark tank

From the count of arms, I am guessing I have 2 :)

[sjwitt]

It's a feather starfish. Hard to keep but since yours is a hitch hiker maybe its more 'sturdy' than most. Good luck with it.

[markdem]

Hi sjwitt,
From looking at some images on feather starfish you are right. Makes explaining why it has 10 arms, makes more sense then one sitting on the other.
Just did some reading on it, and it seems like it should be quite hard to keep. I have had mine for (I am guessing) 10 weeks :). Got to be happy about that.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Mark

[slapshot]

Very nice and lucky. Some of us have paid a lot for those.