the starfish strikes again!!!

[kogle]

Well I had my second lawnmower blenny fall victom to my brittle star. I'm now convinced my brittle star is quite the hunter. Both blennies I've had have had no troubles until their untimely deaths. Both were eating good and acting ok, I guess the starfish is just doing what they do but it still sucks!!!

 

[thomas712]

One reason why I put mine in the refugium instead of main tank.
Sorry to hear about the loss of a fish that way, I always think of those movies where an octopus gets a diver....What a way to go! :scared:

 

[kogle]

I've thought about putting mine in my sump but I'd feel bad becasue the sump is so small...
Maybe a good excuse to upgrade the sump!!!

 

[jasondean]

I had to put mine in the sump do to the fact that my large hermit crab tore off his leg and ate it.

 

[debbie]

Will a Serpent star do the same thing?

 

[emperor11]

Originally Posted by Debbie
Will a Serpent star do the same thing?

Its certainly possible. In fact, a Serpent is MUCH more likely to do that than a Brittle Star is.

 

[celacanthr]

There really is an equal chance that a random brittlestar, and a random serpent star would eat something they aren't "supposed" too. You really have to look at each individual specimen.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by Emperor11
Its certainly possible. In fact, a Serpent is MUCH more likely to do that than a Brittle Star is.

How do you know this??
There is no biological distinction whatsoever between brittlestars and serpentstars.
The only KNOWN predator in the wild is the green brittlestar, Ophiarachna incrassata. Others DO have this potential, which is instinctive. But there is know way to know what they will do.
I have aggressive "brittlestars" and passive one's; I have aggressive "serpentstars," and passive one's. And in another tank another hobbyist may have the same species with totally different behaviors.

 

[dburr]

My serpant ate 2 of my fish, down in the sump it went. It's a brown common one if you need to know.

It may be my fault, I should have spot fed it more than I was.
It is strange how I know it was the serpant and not anything else. It always stayed on the left of the tank and it moved to the right when it hunted. Then a fish would disappear over-night. This happened 2 times and a couple months apart, so don't call me crazy.

LOL

 

[outatime97]

I also have the green brittlestar and have had a few missing fish. I hand feed him shrimp twice a week (climbs into my hand to take it, my favorite fish!). Anyway, what I do not understand is, when I feed him a small piece of shrimp, his body (disk) gets huge. Wouldn't he be totally out of proportion if he ate a whole fish?

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by Outatime97
I also have the green brittlestar and have had a few missing fish. I hand feed him shrimp twice a week (climbs into my hand to take it, my favorite fish!). Anyway, what I do not understand is, when I feed him a small piece of shrimp, his body (disk) gets huge. Wouldn't he be totally out of proportion if he ate a whole fish?
Absolutely yes.
I have 11 brittlestars including 3 large greens and a large aggressive red serpentstar in a 45g. I feed very very heavily...in fact many days may pass when the brittlestars don't even really respond to food in the tank. I had these in smaller tanks as well, with a damsel and sixline...and cleaner shrimp. Never lost anything that was established in the tank. I did lose a clown goby but it was new in the tank, and it is just as (if not more) likely that it died for another reason.
Spot feeding these animals may not prevent predation. That is instinctive. But each individual star is different, each tank is different....it is very difficult to generalize.
But yes, the disk would be very distended...in fact, many brittlestars get big holes in the disk simply because they can't fit the whole meal in and it just breaks through the disk.

 

[kogle]

Well I'm not mad at my green brittle star. It was just doing what they do and that's the price I pay for a always clean sand bed....
The blenny was my wife's favorite fish though and she wants another one but I've been through two now and I'm going to look for a more "active" fish.
The blennies do too much sitting around and I'm pretty sure it makes them easy targets.