hey ophuria..got a star question?
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ophiura
Active Member
Yup, I think that spot feeding is not a bad idea unless you have loads of extra food on the bottom (not good) and very few other "clean up critters." You probably don't have to give it this every night...perhaps a couple to a few times a week, or when you want to put on a show for the guests 
What color brittle do you have?
What color brittle do you have?
ophiura
Active Member
I'm not a shrimp expert, but I do not favor the coral banded personally. Others seem better choices....however, I must throw in that the green brittlestar is a known predator in the wild and may display this behavior in captivity. Not everyone experiences it, but it is a possibility. It tends to favor small fish (as they are going to sleep) and things like shrimp.
rubberduck
Active Member
greens are ambush predetors at adult age and will kill fish at night
O
overla04
Guest
i have a red brittle will it eat my yellow clown gobie?? do they eat other star fish (sand sifting)?? i found mine torn apart the other day i dont have anything else in the tank that could do that kind of damage.
ophiura
Active Member
In your size tank, a sand sifter star is doomed to starvation. They disintegrate into pieces, and it is almost certain (unless you've only had the star a month) that this was what happened in the case of the sand sifter. PLEASE do not purchase another one.
There is never any guarantee that an animal will pass up a meal should it encounter it. I kept 5 brittlestars, including 3 greens in a 15g with a sixline wrasse and never had any issues. Now there are 8 in a 45 with that sixline and still no issues. But you must understand that anything is possible when you are mixing animals in an artificial ecosystem. Lots of animals commonly sold have the potential to eat other animals.
All I can say is be sure it is spot fed...in most cases it will not eat the fish unless it dies, but there can be no promises. However I am quite certain it did not kill the sand sifter - nor did any other animal you keep.
There is never any guarantee that an animal will pass up a meal should it encounter it. I kept 5 brittlestars, including 3 greens in a 15g with a sixline wrasse and never had any issues. Now there are 8 in a 45 with that sixline and still no issues. But you must understand that anything is possible when you are mixing animals in an artificial ecosystem. Lots of animals commonly sold have the potential to eat other animals.
All I can say is be sure it is spot fed...in most cases it will not eat the fish unless it dies, but there can be no promises. However I am quite certain it did not kill the sand sifter - nor did any other animal you keep.
O
overla04
Guest
thanks for ansering my ? what can i get to help keep the sand clean i have snails and crabs. how can i spot feed the brittle if i cant see it? thanks again Amanda
sprang
Member
Well I learned the hard way. This brittle killed my shrimp. Now I'm scared he is gonna go after my gramma. I feed him chunks of fresh shrimp, but I'm still not comfortable with him in there if he's a threat to my fish. are there any other good scavengers that won't eat my fish or coral?
sprang
Member
I've been spot feeding the star fresh shrimp. I guess putting a live shrimp with him wasn't too smart. He probably could smell him. ophiura this may be a dumb question but I can put his food in the opposite side of the tank, and he finds it in like 30 seconds. It's like he has eyes! he doesn't does he?
ophiura
Active Member
Ha ha. Well, not eyes in that sense. But they have a very good chemosensory ability - basically to smell it. Which is why they can smell a new stressed animal, or a dying one (long before we know they are in trouble). At least some brittlestars do, in a sense, have eyes- thousands of optically perfect lenses cover the arm plates. What this means, and how they can interpret the light coming in, is still a mystery. They have no brain that we understand. In this respect, the whole animal is an eye.
razoreqx
Active Member
Originally posted by ophiura
Ha ha. Well, not eyes in that sense. But they have a very good chemosensory ability - basically to smell it. Which is why they can smell a new stressed animal, or a dying one (long before we know they are in trouble). At least some brittlestars do, in a sense, have eyes- thousands of optically perfect lenses cover the arm plates. What this means, and how they can interpret the light coming in, is still a mystery. They have no brain that we understand. In this respect, the whole animal is an eye.
Ophiura
I have a sand sifter star I got about three months ago to mixup the substrait. So far its done a great job. It comes in and out of the sand day and night.
my question is.. I have never spot fed mine. I have never fed it anything. How would I go about feeding a star? What does it eat? I thought it got its meal from the sand..
Thanks
neoreef
Member
I have the same question. I got a serpent star foolishly on impulse, and I've been feeding it just a little frozen fish food each day, but it is not a small animal, and I wonder if I should be feeding it more. It's body is the size of a nickel, or maybe a little larger. I was told that they will eat detritus and are scavengers, but mostly this guy hides motionless in the rocks until feeding time when he comes out. Would he be more active if fed more?
Thanks,
Kathy
Thanks,
Kathy
ophiura
Active Member
The sand sifter star may or may not take to spot feeding - but one must hope you get lucky, as the majority are doomed to die of starvation in 9-12 months unless in a large system (over 100g) with little rock all in all (increase surface area of sand). You may see it losing pieces of its arm...or see hermits on it. Don't think it is being attacked - it is dying as most do. I personally would return it to the store. If you are looking for a functional deep sand bed, they are among the worst animals to add, as they eat the good critters in the sand bed. Try seeing if it will take to anything meaty - shrimp, squid, clams, frozen silversides. Put a bit on a bamboo skewer and put it right next to the arm and see if the star moves toward it to eat.
As for brittlestars -
The one to avoid is the green brittlestar, a known predator. It may or may not display this behavior in captivity, but it is a risk. Most others are not known to be as problematic, but could be, in theory (as could nearly every other animal we keep like shrimp, crabs, etc). I tend to feed mine a fair amount of shrimp pellets a few times a week. Throw them in there (but I have several brittlestars). It is really hard to judge exactly how much an individual should be fed I'm afraid. The daily bit plus a larger feeding a couple of times a week...that should be sufficient but really determined by the individual star and overall water quality.
As for brittlestars -
The one to avoid is the green brittlestar, a known predator. It may or may not display this behavior in captivity, but it is a risk. Most others are not known to be as problematic, but could be, in theory (as could nearly every other animal we keep like shrimp, crabs, etc). I tend to feed mine a fair amount of shrimp pellets a few times a week. Throw them in there (but I have several brittlestars). It is really hard to judge exactly how much an individual should be fed I'm afraid. The daily bit plus a larger feeding a couple of times a week...that should be sufficient but really determined by the individual star and overall water quality.