Star fish surprise

[Dearth]

I've known for months that I had a brittle star(tentatively identified as a fancy tiger striped serpent sea star) in my tank that is about 6 inches from arm tip to arm tip today while doing my weekly water change I discovered that I have 2 possibly 3 more brittle stars in my tank.

So far they haven't caused any issues to my fish/coral/CuC but I am concerned as my tank is only 33 gallons and not sure if it can support such a population of brittle stars and my 95 gallon is still about a month or so from starting up should I be worried with the brittle star population or should I start eradicating them?

[Myka]

There are mini Brittle Starfish that will reproduce in your tank. The population will thrive and wane according to food availability. The Serpent Starfish is not likely to be the "parent". FYI, Serpent Starfish are well known to catch and eat small fish. Black Brittle Starfish and mini Brittle Starfish are both reef safe and easy to keep (unlike many other starfish species). My Black Brittle Starfish is about 5 or 6 years old.

[Dearth]

Thank you I feel better but it was quite the shock to see 3 separate sets of starfish arms poking out through the rocks on 3 separate rocks I damn near dropped my bucket full of fresh salt water

[Myka]