Common Brittle Star (Ophiocoma wendtii)

Description

One Common Brittle Star, hand-collected and quarantined right here in Key West. This specimen shows the classic dark central disc and five long, whip-thin arms fringed with rust and ember-red spines — a small animal that punches far above its weight as a cleanup crew member.

About the Common Brittle Star (Ophiocoma wendtii)

Ophiocoma wendtii is one of the most abundant echinoderms on Caribbean and Florida Keys reefs, and one of the strangest animals in the hobby. Its skeleton is studded with thousands of calcite microlenses that function as a compound eye spread across its entire body, letting it sense light and shadow without eyes at all — and shift color between rust-red by day and gray-brown at night. In a tank it is a tireless nocturnal scavenger, threading its arms deep into rockwork and under the sandbed to pull out detritus and leftover food that nothing else can reach.

Care Guide

Hardy, inexpensive, and one of the highest-value cleanup crew animals per dollar in a mature reef.

• Lighting: Not light-dependent; hides in shaded rockwork by day.
• Flow: Low to moderate.
• Placement: Sandbed and rockwork; it will disappear into the rock within hours and emerge at night.
• Feeding/Nutrients: Scavenges detritus and uneaten food; supplement with sinking pellets in very clean systems.
• Aggression/Reef Safe: 100% reef safe — harmless to corals, fish, and other inverts. Unlike the large green brittle star, this species does not hunt fish.
• Water Parameters: Stable reef parameters required — Temp 76-78°F, pH 8.1-8.4, Salinity 1.024-1.026. Very sensitive to rapid salinity swings and copper-based medications. Acclimate slowly by drip.

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