Green Brittlestar ?

[wolffam]

I noticed earlier todaythat my green brittlestar looked awfully swollen and moving sluggish. He seems to be find tonight. Is it possible that he ate something big? Also I did a water change this afternoon, would that have made it swell? PS: I do seem to be missing a fish. Any suggestions?

 

[sunken ship]

Green Brittlestars have been known to eat fish from time to time, and the chances increase when they aren't being fed as much as they would like. I would guess that the brittlestar is the culprit for the dissappearence of your fish.

 

[99]

Green brittle stars are very aggressive. I used to feed mine a piece of squid , shrimp from the grocery store, stuck to the end of a plastic fork. I kept him well fed and he would leave the others alone.
What they do is, After you turn the lights off for the night, they craw on top of the live rock , corals or whatever decorations and drop on top of sleeping , unsuspecting fish.

 

[leboeuf]

I didn't keep mine well fed, and he ate a feather duster that was struggling. If he's fat, he ate something big. He won't be mobile for a week while he digests the meal. Start feeding silverside (somethng) once a week and watch hime grow. I saw one in my LFS that was at least 12 in tip to tip.

 

[ophiura]

What fish are you missing? It would also have eaten it if it was sick, stressed or dead, so never overlook that possibility. If it was hungry however, it will eat something. Start feeding it, or trade it back to the LFS (they will also do well in a refugium or sump). This species is a known predator in the wild, and generally hunts by standing on the tips of the arms, forming a small 'cave.' Unsuspecting fish, looking for a place to sleep, swim in, and are caught. But generally they are smaller fish.

 

[wolffam]

I'm missing my psudo, it had been acting differently, scratching on the rocks, but I saw nothing on it. How much and how often to I need to feed my starfish? If I placed it in my sump, would I need to add lighting or LR?

 

[ophiura]

I would suggest that you consider something else killed the pseudo, and the brittle ate it...or at least took advantage of a weak or sickly animal.
I generally recommend the star be fed at least once a week, however, if kept out of the main tank, this may need to be more often. I hesitate to sawy more often because it comes down to how much you feed and water quality, etc. So in part you need to decide how your tank is handling the situation.
If kept in the sump, it would be good to have a few pieces of LR for it to hide under...perhaps a bit of a pile somewhere. No lighting is required. Brittlestars actually don't like light.