Who is that in my tank?

[the fisherman]

This mourning at around 7 am I happened to be next to my tank when the lights
popped up. I saw a long "octopus" leg retreating into a hole under some
liverock. I am assuming that it is a brittle star that I bought back in February
when I was a super newbie, only 3 months into salt. Actually two came
in a clean up crew with snails, shrimp, and crabs. At the time I remember also seing a tiny
little brittle star looking thing. I was shocked this morning, because I thought the
stars were dead. I pulled one out, who had no legs left and everybody was
chewing on. I also saw the legs of the other, but never saw it again?? So I am thinking
this thing I saw this morning is a survival from Febuary, or maybe that little guy grew
exponentially, or he cam in recently on new LR(I doubt) it is a small tank and I buy small
pieces of LR from a LFS, but none since May. Any thoughts? Are they nocturnal?

 

[kelly]

More than likely a starfish leg. I could have come in the new live rock, or it may have been there from early on.

 

[db]

I have a bunch of those small stars in my nano. They reproduce really fast and are pretty much nocturnal. Mine will stick their arms out when I feed the tank, but other than that I never see them. You may have had more in your tank than you originally thought.