Micro Brittlestars - Ophiocoma pumila (Banded brittlestar)

Micro brittlestar : Ophiocoma pumila (Banded brittlestar)

Natural detritivours, native to the reef ecosystem. 100% reef safe, ignored by most reef inhabitants, even wrasse in our experience.This soecies breeds easily and at regular intervals in a stable reef aquarium. The require no special care or diet. They can squeeze into the tiniest of spaces to clear out detritus, diatoms and waste food.

What is not to like? These are some of the most useful clean up crew a marine reef aquarium can be graced with!

Especially useful in macro algae dominant aquaria, where more aggressive herbivours can take a liking to macro algae species!

Amazing to watch (catch them at night), waving their little striped legs from crevices, catching floculant and detritus in the current.

We initially began breeding these to house in our macro algae aquaria, to keep algaes free of detritus and diatoms. After realising their effectiveness and benefit to the overall biodiversity of our aquaria and multiple contact for hobbiests we created a dedicated breeding setup for them.

It has been a learning curve, as although these stars can reproduce asexually by 'pulling themselves apart' we wanted the genetic diversity that only comes from breeding them sexually. Our next hurdle was shipping the stars, soon realising the same conditions that stimulte them to release gametes (eggs and sperm) were being recreated whilst shipping. This was not ideal as it 'fouled'  their shipping solution often resulting in an ammonia spike and death. We now overcome this by holding the stars in breeding tubes for 24 hours prior to shipping and stimulating the release of gametes. Only once gametes have been released are they transfered to fresh tubes with activated carbon.

Size

Most stars are shipped between 2cm and 3cm in diameter, including legs. Their maximum attainable size is around 5cm (These are monsters and rare!)

Shipping

Stars are shipped 2 per tube with activated carbon, a sufficient air gap and fresh salt water. They DO require drip acclimating or equivalent on arrival as are sensitive to salinity swings.