What is this creature?

[SFEERO]

I found 2 of these crawling up the side of the glass on my refugium today. One of them crawled into stage 3 where my pump and skimmer are, so I don't know how he will survive. It has 3 "legs". Each leg looks similar to a bristle worm. It has 3 small tenticle looking things, don't know if thats its head or what. Need to figure out what this thing is, kind of creepy............sorry for the quality, it was from my Iphone

 

[IPisces]

Kinda looks like a mini brittle star that has lost a few legs

see the first pic
mini brittle star - Google Search

 

[SFEERO]

Well I saw two of them, and they both had 3 legs........

 

[SFEERO]

So are these brittle stars good for a refugium? Are they parasitic? Any ideas/suggestions on these guys? One of them I believe will not survive, as he has gone into the next stage of the sump, no longer in the refugium. Suggestions appreciated.

 

[IPisces]

These are great for your system. If you can get it out and put it in the main tank it will do good as part of your clean up crew. As you can see there are many different kinds. I have a lot of different ones in my tanks. They're pretty cool.

 

[Prest0nC]

Usually starfish with skinny legs are reef safe (i.e brittle stars) and starfish with thicker legs are not reef compatible (i.e chocolate chip starfish)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Scampy]

I'd throw them in the tank. Good little reef janitors. A few years ago I had 2 or 3 of them...now there is about 50. There are legs hanging out everywhere. I do weekly water changes but every 2-3 months when I do one it triggers a spawning event that is pretty cool to watch. I took some pics and videos of them spawning. I'll see if I can find them.

 

[T1tan360]

agree with everyone this are great to have in your system