My brittle star ate my xenia!

[pbuck]

Last night I moved my 6" green brittle star from my refugium to my display tank. Once he landed on the sand bed he wrapped his arms around a 4" xenia frag and tore it off the rock it was attached to. I was so amazed I called my girlfriend over to watch. It began to pull the xenia from the rock and it positioned its body directly above the xenia and began to eat it! Its arms were tightly wrapped around the xenia while the center of the starfish began to rise up. What I mean about raising up is that it seemed as though something was trying to poke through the top of the starfish, but I imagine it was the xenia being crammed into the starfish's mouth. It took about 3 minutes for the starfish to polish off the xenia and I have since placed the starfish back into the refugium after I noticed it stealing brine shrimp from a sun polyp colony. I was worried the starfish would hurt the sun polyps since it was so vicious to the xenia.
I would never have imagined that a starfish would eat a xenia but it really happened. I guess that he was really hungry. He was living in my refugium and I would have imagined he would be feeding on the leftover brine shrimp from feeding the fish and corals.

 

[kreach]

I have never heard of a brittle star eating xenia (or corals of any kind for that matter). Small fish, yes, but not corals. My only conclusion could be that he was starving. We're you feeding him anything directly while he was in the refugium or were you just leaving him to scavenge?

 

[beaslbob]

i got rid of a green bahama star for the same reason. Now my (new) pulsing xenia is right in front of my green brittle star. So far seems to be ok. But may have to get rid of it also.

 

[newreefers]

my brittle is over 12" tip of arm to tip of arm, and it has never bothered anything in the tank. I make sure to give it a large piece of meat (usually shrimp) 2 to 3 times a week. It may just have been so hungry it ate the first thing it saw. My star will finish every bit of food I give it. I don't think they can get enough to eat by just scavenging brine shrimp.

 

[pbuck]

I usually take a look at him after I feed my tank with brine shrimp. I almost always see him with his arms wrapped around a few pieces. I guess he needs to eat more than he is getting. I'll start feeding him pieces of shrimp or scallop.

 

[randy 12]

My friend's brittle ate two of his anemones.

 

[searcher]

It would be nice to get a brittle star that would eat some of my xenia once in a while, just to keep the xenia from taking over the tank.