Brittle/serpent star questions.

[rwhite]

We've had our reef set up for about a year and a half now, really about a year as we didnt start adding corals and such for a little while. Anyway, we never added a starfish of any kind and was wondering if they are a "neccessary" (for lack of a better word) reef inhabitant. From the descriptions in the invert section, they are excellent scavengers and beneficial to a reef. So the question is, should we get one and which one (brittle or serpent) would be better? And will it be okay in our display as far as predators? Heres a list of our inhabitants:
2 Clarkiis, 1 Coral Beauty, 1 4-Stripe Damsel, 1 Yellow-tail Damsel and 1 Neon Dottyback. 2 Cleaner Shrimp and 1 large CBS. Various corals, snails and hermits, oh yeah, and a Sally Lightfoot crab, the body is a little bigger than a quarter. Any info or suggestions are appreciated. If more info about our display is needed, let me know.

 

[t n h]

we have a serpent in our 85 gal along with 1 flame, 1 foxface, 1 fire shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, multiple snails and crabs with no problems cool little critter

 

[coralfreak]

Get a brittle!!!!! All fish need to sleep at one time or another to sleep...and that's when the serpent stars go in 4 the kill. They will kill EVERY fish in your tank...in time, however brittle stars are harmless and are great reef scavengers.
Hope this helps...believe me...i 've had this experience before, numerous times, and i know plenty of people who have!

 

[krishj39]

Serpent starfish ARE brittle starfish, they just don't have the "hair" on their legs. I have never heard of a serpent starfish causing problems. Green and yellow brittle starfish are the most likely to nab a fish in their sleep. In my 90 gallon tank I have 3 serpent starfish (one of them is a foot across) and one black brittlestar. None of them have ever caused problems and I would highly recommend them. If i fish DIES then the starfish will quickly find them and eat them, but this is much different from actively hunting them.

 

[herkemer]

We have a green brittle star and a serpant star. Both are model citizens. The live in the same cave as our two fire shrimp and no they have never bothered a fish. The green brittle star does like to wrap around your finger. It kind of freaked me out the first time he did it.

 

[greggyb]

My experience has been with my neon dottyback that he likes to pick and these kind of creatures a lot. Would be careful of adding these guys witht he dottyback because they are so intrigued by these stars and you could end up with a brittle with no arms.

 

[rwhite]

Thanks all. It was the dotty and sally that I was most worried about. And I cant imagine the difficulty trying to remove a brittle if it was being picked on. Anyone else have any experiences with star predation?

 

[infalable]

By serpent has never had problems with any fish, sallys, or emeralds. They seem to be a perfect complement to the tank.

 

[fishfishkc]

My serpent and brittle do just fine in my tank with my emeralds, and sifter stars, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp and all the fish. My green brittle is about 1 ft. long and no problems at all

 

[michael7979]

My serpent star is way cool!! That would be my input. But beware of "sally", mine is LARGE and is becoming a pain in the @%s! Your cbs may cause problems later as it gets bigger, so I have heard.

 

[rwhite]

Thanks for all the input everyone. Unfortunately, it doesnt make the decision any easier. I think we'll try a brittle and see what happens. If indeed it becomes a victim of picking, should an attempt be made to remove it or let nature run its course?

 

[michael7979]

The brittle star will be the one picking which fish to eat when it gets bigger.

 

[rwhite]

Now I'm confused. I thought the green variety may be bad, but black/brown would be okay. And red serpents are the "bad" guys of their group. Help

 

[the josey wales]

I have a green. He puts up a tenticle when he's hungry and I squrit him with beef heart.
he has never taken a fish.
unfortunitly, because i target feed him every 3 days, he doesn't do his job of eating crap very well...
oh yea, and hes growing fast!