culturing mini serpent stars

Aquaph8 · Apr 22, 2011

Gotcha. I'm not familiar with the white ones, just the plain mini brittles.

berghia_R_awesome · Apr 23, 2011

tclipse said:
Nono we were talking about the white micro brittles.. their bodies are about the size of pinheads.

On a side note, I just dosed with FWE and both my micro white and mini (banded like the bigger ones) stars as well as my one regular sized brittle are NOT enjoying it at all... so far I only think it has killed 2-3 of the tiny whites but just something to be mindful of if you plan on culturing these.

YEP!! FWE is a no go for brittles. Killed several large brittles during a FWE treatment before I learned that (oh the reefing lessons we learn along the way!!). A friend has a tank filled with mini brittles and was about to dose FWE just the other day until I told him it would likely kill most (or all) of his mini brittles. Sounds like he'd rather live with a few FW's than risk killing all the little brittles (for the moment anyway).

J

Akwarius · Apr 23, 2011

Not only that but I would be hesitant to kill off my amphipod/copepod populations.

berghia_R_awesome · Apr 23, 2011

Akwarius said:
Not only that but I would be hesitant to kill off my amphipod/copepod populations.

I've dosed it on two seperate occasions and didn't notice it significantly affecting pod populations. I dose interceptor into my QT tank as a precautionary measure any time I get in new acro's and that definately kills pods. It takes several months after an interceptor dose to see any new copepods or amphipods in my QT.

J

xmetalfan99 · Apr 23, 2011

tclipse said:
Nono we were talking about the white micro brittles.. their bodies are about the size of pinheads.

On a side note, I just dosed with FWE and both my micro white and mini (banded like the bigger ones) stars as well as my one regular sized brittle are NOT enjoying it at all... so far I only think it has killed 2-3 of the tiny whites but just something to be mindful of if you plan on culturing these.

I hate FWE. I just manually removed any that I saw until my wrasse ate the rest. I HATE putting anything like that stuff in any tank.

adrianbryce · Jun 1, 2011

def cut them if you can manage it. then drop the halfs into a sump. they will take care of it from there, ime.

Salty D · Jun 11, 2011

I have a bunch of mini brittles that come out for a spawning event several times per year. It always happens late in the evening and after a water change. Not sure if its coinsidence or if I'm triggering it somehow but I witness it 4 or 5 times a year. My nano is 2 1/2 years old and I only saw a few of them when I started and now there is legs sticking out everywhere. I took some pics and a short video of one of the events. They all come out at the exact same time and climb as high as they can, on rocks, corals, up the heater,etc. Then its like someone fired a starter pistol and they all race to see who can empty themselves the fastest. Here is a few pics and a really short vid.