Did star eat my clown?

[sinner's girl]

The male clown is gone. The fish was fine last night. He ate on thursday (i didn't feed on friday or saturday). The fish was breathing and acting normal. water is near perfect.
I have a big brittle star and a serpent star. The brittle's middle is about the size of a half dollar, each leg is over 6 inches. I asked a while back if the star was too big for the tank or if it would bother the fish, i was told no.
the stars and the fish have been in the tank together for over a year (stars and male clown added jan 2002). i have never seen them bother each other. There was no since of being beaten up yesterday. There has been black stuff on the top of the male clown's head, and the lines are smeared but I was told not to worry about it.
This afternoon i went to feed the fish before coming to school to study. I only saw one. I've searched the tank and found nothing (no fish in filter either or outside the tank).
ime, fish just don't die and disappear. If it's possible it was the brittle or the serpent (who is almost as big, but middle size of a quarter) then I'll move it to the 75gl.
Any ideas on what happened to my fish? Did he just die and the clean up crew ate him?
Thanks. I hate losing fish and it drives me crasy not knowing why.

 

[acez28]

I had a chocolate ship starfish that ate 2 domino damsels and a coupla anemones so i wouldnt doubt it..........

 

[mrcr4888]

I lost two clowns to a britlle star. He died and I havent had any mising fish since.

 

[ophiura]

First of all, what kind of brittlestar was this? Yes, some brittlestars can eat fish, but not all. And I am tired of people jumping to conclusions. You say there were marks on the clown? What are you water reading (what is 'near perfect' to you may not be to me). Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, alk. Any new additions recently? Any water changes? What else is in the tank?
Fish actually can suddenly die quickly, and can go without a trace even in tanks without brittlestars in it.
A clean up crew will clean it up quickly.
AceZ28, While I do not doubt your chocolate chip ate your anemones (they are not reef safe and you shouldn't have had them together), I seriously doubt it ate two healthy fish. Clean them up, yes, but catch and eat them, no. Predatory brittlestars are much faster than something like a chocolate chip. You may have been looking at the wrong problem.
Quickly assuming it was the brittle may mean you are overlooking another problem.

 

[sinner's girl]

sammystingray
the brittle is brown in color, got it from this site. it's just called Brittle Starfish [ https://www.saltwaterfish.com/starfishinfo.html#brittle ] second star on the page, above the green.
ophiura
the last fish/invert/lr was added a year ago. The male clown was added the day or so before I became a member here. no fish have been added since the male clown (the one that is gone)
water levels~
Ammonia~0,, nitrite~>don't rememer either 0 or very close to it, nitrate~>10, ph~whatever it should be at, alk~never tested for this. I don't know the exact numbers since it was on a diff scale then i'm used to. Last water change date is in my sig.
about the marks on the clown. On 1-9-03 i posted "It breaths, swims, acts and eats as normal.
The second black line by its head looks smeared. (clowns are orange, then thin black line, then white, then thin black line and more orange.) Instead of streight lines they look jagged.
I noticed this last night. No sign of it on the other clown. It's mainly on the top of the fish, but some along the bottom by the fins. the black smears and it sold in color. It's only on the first section of the fish, no where else that I see. " I was told "At this point, this isn't something I would be concerned with. Keep an eye out and post back if you notice any other irregular symptoms." I never saw any other symptoms, it didn't get worse or better.
"Quickly assuming it was the brittle may mean you are overlooking another problem."
I'm not assuming it was the brittle, i was asking if it could be the brittle, since i've yet to find another reason. I want to find the reason to preven the clown from dissapearing. we have not had a fish death (in the 55gl) in over a year (the fish that died was due to me not feeding it right and harassment by the female clown). I've never seen the stars bother the fish, even at night when the lights are off.
thanks everyone who replied.

 

[ophiura]

The genus Ophiocoma is not known to be predatory, but it is always a possibility I suppose. Do you feed these guys anything? I have two of these guys and rarely see them except at feeding time.
What can I say? Anything is possible. If you are worried, put it in another tank or trade it in.
FWIW, I would start keeping an eye out on alkalinity. It is, IMO, one of the "big 5" (amm, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alk). Hopefully nitrite is 0, otherwise, this is a problem.
I am not a disease person, so I do not know the significance, if any, of the smudging, though it is an interesting correlation.

 

[sinner's girl]

I see our stars all the time, he likes to hang on on the heater, on the air pump and in the lr. They get fed shrimp (from wal-mart) every now and then (we try to get a few at least once a month). They get bloodwarms at least once a week, most weeks twice (the stars seem to love them, if i feed the clowns that, the stars come out and try to reach for it). And brine shrimp about once a week, though the Brittle doesn't seem crazy about brine. Flakes once in awhile if we're out of brine and I can't find the bloodwarms. There is not a regular set day they get feed on. If they come out when I'm feeding the fish, and if my hands are clean and i have the time they get food. But they at least get feed twice a week.
Do I need to be feeding them? I was told in the past it wasn't needed to feed them, but I could if I wanted to. If I should feed them more often or feed them something diff, let me know. They have grown so much in the year we've had them, someone told me to feed them less (but I haven't since they seem to like the food and I like feeding them).
I'm at home now, and I checked the levels (I write them now when I test) nitrite is 0. I've never been told alkalinity was a big deal in fowlr tanks. What does it effect? Of course if I should be testing for it, I will start testing for it.
If I move the brittle to the other tank, how do I do it? I heard they are not to touch air (unless they move). Chances are I won't move him b/c the water in the 75gl isn't at what i'd like it to be (it just went through a cycle) and I don't yet trust it (was bought set with water from lfs).
as for the smudging, a similar thing happened to the other clown around labor day (but the black was near the top and the lines weren't smudged);it went away in a few weeks. I was wondering if maybe it was the male maturing?
Thanks a lot!