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Brittle stars are a moderately popular invertebrate in fishkeeping. They can easily thrive in marine tanks; in fact, the micro brittle star is a common "hitchhiker" that will propagate and become common in almost any saltwater tank, if one happens to come along on some live rock.
This brittle star has a circum-boreal distribution. In the northern Atlantic Ocean it is common around Iceland, Spitzbergen and Norway southwards to the North Sea.On the eastern coast of North America its range extends from Greenland southwards to Long Island, and in the Pacific Ocean, its range stretches from Japan and the Bering Sea southwards to California. [3]
When brittle stars sexually reproduce, their fertilized eggs float in the water and eventually develop into larvae. Ophioplutei feed on plankton. Brittle star larvae are small and mostly clear. These larvae then go through metamorphosis, this is the stage where they develop their five arms. These young brittle stars then move on to the settling ...
The larva of a Schayer’s brittle star is bilaterally symmetrical, with a ciliated band around the body. The next developmental form is a vitellaria larva, bordered by ciliary ridges. The vitellaria larva soon develops juvenile tube feet and ventral skeletal plates.
This brittle star usually spawns between May and January. Each individual is thought to spawn just once during each breeding season. A week after spawning, the planktonic larvae appear in the water column. They metamorphose into young brittle stars which drift in the plankton for about three weeks before settling. The smallest brittle stars ...
Ophiura ophiura is an active brittle star, moving with a jerky swimming action of its legs and sometimes burrowing. [2] It is a filter feeder, feeding on a wide range of food, [1] but also a bottom-feeding carnivore and detritivore. [7] It can regenerate its arms if they are damaged or torn off. [7] Sexual reproduction takes place during the ...
In the Irish Sea it is eaten along with the common brittle star (Ophiothrix fragilis) by the fast-moving seven armed starfish (Luidia ciliaris). [5] Individuals of this species are either male or female. Fertilisation is external and the larvae are planktonic. It is a fast-growing brittle star and is not thought to live for more than three ...
Ophiothrix is a large genus of brittle stars (Ophiuroidea) found in oceans worldwide from tropics to Arctic and Antarctic regions. At present a total of 93 Ophiothrix species have been recognized. It is considered as one of the most interesting genera because of the presence of its brilliant colors and associations with coral and sponges as well.