Brittle star blood spray

[tuajia]

Hey all, just experienced a scene out of a horror movie. I just acquired some brittle stars from a nice bro and was acclimating them to my main tank. After I put 2 in, they proceeded to explore the tank (light are off) and started climbing up the glass. One climbed up to the outlet of the return pump and was blown to the front of my tank. To my horror, it suddenly started flailing and started spraying what looks like blood into the water. I couldn't really tell since it was dark but it looked felt like at least 3 seconds worth of spraying. To make thing worse, the other star, which was below, suddenly reared up and started spraying "blood" in response. Then they both plopped down and slithered away to hide. I have never seen such a thing before, any experts ever experienced this? It happened so fast that I couldn't take pics. Now I just hope they don't die or something. I checked online but didn't find any ino on this crazy behavior. Super scary

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

[killkyo]

Is it this?

"It might sound odd that invertebrates such as these will often reproduce in aquariums, but I've seen it happen on many occasions. Most have separate sexes, but many are hermaphroditic, some being simultaneous hermaphrodites, and they sometimes spawn in aquariums, which is often a tank-wide event.1,6 I've seen dozens of them simultaneously emerge from their hiding places in rocks and such, climb up the tallest thing they can find, and then start releasing tiny puffs of gametes into the water. Some can also brood their young, which are kept in pouches in their bodies and released as miniscule juveniles from the parent."

From: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/6/inverts

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CKS]

Hey all, just experienced a scene out of a horror movie. I just acquired some brittle stars from a nice bro and was acclimating them to my main tank. After I put 2 in, they proceeded to explore the tank (light are off) and started climbing up the glass. One climbed up to the outlet of the return pump and was blown to the front of my tank. To my horror, it suddenly started flailing and started spraying what looks like blood into the water. I couldn't really tell since it was dark but it looked felt like at least 3 seconds worth of spraying. To make thing worse, the other star, which was below, suddenly reared up and started spraying "blood" in response. Then they both plopped down and slithered away to hide. I have never seen such a thing before, any experts ever experienced this? It happened so fast that I couldn't take pics. Now I just hope they don't die or something. I checked online but didn't find any ino on this crazy behavior. Super scary

 

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

 

 

wahahhaa those are actually robots designed to infiltrate and destroy unsuspecting owner's tank

I have witnessed that happened once only and it happened outside the tank under stress i think. Please keep us updated on the status of the stars

[CKS]

Btw, does those 'blood' resemble the one shown in the photo here https://secure2.pbase.com/imagine/image/145917342

[JMW]

Cool! Didn't know they spawn like this!

[tuajia]

Hi bros, thanks for the info... I was wondering if it might be spawning because i know snails spray into the water too. I also went to youtube to check. So far the starfish sperm is usually white. . But this one looks reddish brown and kind of.... creamy? Yuck

I just witnessed another star doing this thing. He just flopped over and started oozing the reddish brown thing, then flopped back and carry on his business. Unless it's actually poop?? But it didn't come from the central mouth, more like from the five slits where the arms join the underside of the body cap. They seem ok though. Super weird.

 

[CKS]

Hi bros, thanks for the info... I was wondering if it might be spawning because i know snails spray into the water too. I also went to youtube to check. So far the starfish sperm is usually white. . But this one looks reddish brown and kind of.... creamy? Yuck

I just witnessed another star doing this thing. He just flopped over and started oozing the reddish brown thing, then flopped back and carry on his business. Unless it's actually poop?? But it didn't come from the central mouth, more like from the five slits where the arms join the underside of the body cap. They seem ok though. Super weird.

 

I have been waiting for that to happen in my main tank but it never did, i even turned off the skimmer anticipating the spawning.. you are lucky!

[tuajia]

I have been waiting for that to happen in my main tank but it never did, i even turned off the skimmer anticipating the spawning.. you are lucky!

Haha thanks bro, maybe the trigger is stress? When they feel danger, they feel excited also

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

[tuajia]

Hi bros, update: My brittle stars are still alive, so it should be good. I also noticed that my favites extended their feeding tentacles a while after the spray incident. So i assume whatever was sprayed is nutritious and not poison... So it should be sperm or eggs right?? Haha

I just read up that brittle stars will climb up to the highest point to spray their sperm/eggs, which sounds like what happened to mine. Also, a change in temperature can trigger spawning for certain starfish species. So I'm wondering if the acclimatization process actually triggered it accidentally, since my tanks would obviously be a a different temperature from the plastic bag. it didn't happen immediately also... Only 30 minutes later, after i finished acclimatizing them to my water as well. Maybe can experiment with temperature change to see if that's the trigger for brittle star spawning too. 

[CKS]

Hi bros, update: My brittle stars are still alive, so it should be good. I also noticed that my favites extended their feeding tentacles a while after the spray incident. So i assume whatever was sprayed is nutritious and not poison... So it should be sperm or eggs right?? Haha

I just read up that brittle stars will climb up to the highest point to spray their sperm/eggs, which sounds like what happened to mine. Also, a change in temperature can trigger spawning for certain starfish species. So I'm wondering if the acclimatization process actually triggered it accidentally, since my tanks would obviously be a a different temperature from the plastic bag. it didn't happen immediately also... Only 30 minutes later, after i finished acclimatizing them to my water as well. Maybe can experiment with temperature change to see if that's the trigger for brittle star spawning too. 

Thanks for sharing. Those are good points, i might try to 'stress' them soon to breed more of it

[CKS]

Found an article on how to induce stress to 'encourage' breeding in brittlestar

http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=1184

 

[tuajia]

Update. I caught a video of a brittle star spawning, it's one of the stars I got from bro CKS.

Now my tank tank is full of baby stars, each the size of a nano Sim card with the arms spread out. They are happily camping on my sandbed. I estimate close to 50 of them

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

[CKS]

Omg so happy for you!!

Btw, would you be able to share the filter setup? I'd to know how the eggs survived the filtering

[tuajia]

Thanks bro! For the ios at the back, I put a box full of filter wool and ceramic media in the first stage, then skimmer in the second. Perhaps the eggs got caught in the filter wool, then the babies crawled out? I do notice some baby stars hanging out near the intake area. My return pump is also quite gentle, only about 300 litres/hr.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

[CKS]

Good good good!

I'd have thought its impossible or hard to breed in aquarium since this specie dont go through brooding, so it is still possible with not so crazy flow rate

Thank you for sharing

Thanks bro! For the ios at the back, I put a box full of filter wool and ceramic media in the first stage, then skimmer in the second. Perhaps the eggs got caught in the filter wool, then the babies crawled out? I do notice some baby stars hanging out near the intake area. My return pump is also quite gentle, only about 300 litres/hr.

 

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

 

[tuajia]

No problem bro. Glad to share info among the community.