ophiura Help star emergency!

[saltyj]

Yesterday I feed my brittle sea star an algae wafer and he gladly accepted. A while later I noticed my blue legs and especially my nassarius snails attacking him. Well this morning when I woke up the whole top of his "body" (the middle disk) is comletely eaten. Why would my snails do this and will he survive? I have him in a small breeder tank inside the display. Should I worry or will he regenerate?

 

[saltyj]

Here are some gruesome pictures I just took of the poor star. Anyone can answer my question you know, not just Ophiura.

 

[saltyj]

another.

 

[saltyj]

ok since no one has helped me I released him back into the display and have decided to let my clean up crew do thier job. They have comenced "cleaning him up"

 

[michaeltx]

that sucks how long did you have him?
something made them go after him not sure what though.
was there any sign of damage or discoloration before this started?
I dont think there was much you could do for him though it looks like most of his oral disk was gone when it gets like that its even harder for most stars to regenerate back.
Mike

 

[saltyj]

I have had him about 6 months and he had lost a leg about 2 months ago but it was finally growing back. I saw one discolored spot before it happened, but he ate right before that. If he was sick he would not eat right? Anyway they have about finished him off. It is good to know they can clean up that kind of thing though.

 

[lifefreak0007]

just want to let you know that we are all sorry for your loss. Man o man it sucks to have some thing you like get EATEN.

 

[michaeltx]

actaully with stars the dont know whats going on so until it gets to a point that the mouth is gone they can contiue to eat. even after the oral disk is completely gone they can still move their legs around like they were all in one pieces.
what might have happened is that the algae waffer induced a feeding frenzy and they went to the smell and started eating what they thought was food for them.
what I always feed mine were shrimp pellets and meaty foods they realy like meaty foods instead of algae based foods.
other than that I am out of ideas.
Mike

 

[ophiura]

Yikes that's scary stuff. I've heard of some brittlestars (greens, usually) attacking other brittlestars to get at what they've eaten, so I don't suppose it was unexpected to hear other critters killing the brittlestar. But it is strange. It is hard to say if it would have recovered. That was some major damage and surely it would have needed to stay in the separate container. Did you do anything different than you normally do when it comes to spot feeding this guy?

 

[saltyj]

nope did not do anything different just fed him the algae wafer.
He is gone now though.