Look who lives in my liverock!

[Nancy]

I finally got a decent pic of my tiny brittlestar with black-and-white striped legs. Each leg is about 3/4 inch long - I believe he has 5 of them. He lives in a hole in the liverock and is normally very hard to see (I used a flash and greatly enlarged the photo).

He is a filter feeder and will catches small fragments of flakes. Actually, I now squirt the tiny flakes suspended in salt water by using a turkey baster - that way I make sure he gets food every day.

Nancy

 

[cuttlegirl]

Awww, how cute!

 

[sorseress]

What pretty coloration!

 

[DHyslop]

That's a nice little brittle star. I've got little ones, too, but they're always gray or white without the snazzy stripes.

Dan

 

[chrono_war01]

I've only see one gray one during a diving trip.

Cute things, brittlestars..

 

[Nancy]

I have little white ones too, but they come out and crawl around.
Marvin (that's what I've named him) is special.

It was Colin who advised me to take a large magnifying glass and examine my live rock to discover all the small interesting things living there. If you haven't tried this, you should.

Nancy

 

[Jean]

Hey Nancy,

Marvin is gorgeous! He looks abit like our sand brittle stars.............except ours ar scavengers! and are two shades of brown!

J

 

[corw314]

Nice pics Nancy! He's really cute! Very octo like too!

Carol

 

[aximbigfan]

what is a bristal star?


chris

 

[cuttlegirl]

A brittle star (sometimes called a serpent star) is related to sea stars and sea urchins (and sea cucumbers and crinoids). They have five very flexible arms connected to a central disk.