Black Brittle Star FIsh

[cooltop]

I bought one a few days ago. Is worth keeping in my tank or should I get rid of him. I have a few corals hermits, snails, clownfish, blenny, goby, cleaner shrimp, jawfish,

Thanks

 

[cooltop]

also its a 72 bow with 67lbs of LR

 

[thominil]

They are reef safe, they may eat an occasional tiny tubeworm. They tend to hide under live rock, so you may not see it that much. They are also supposed to be great scavengers eating poo, detritus and food remains. HTH.

 

[Innovator]

They are not reef safe. Any and all brittle stars are carnivores and just like their 'green terror' counterparts, they can hunt down small fish and shrimp.

 

[thominil]

hmmm....guess my book is wrong then....

 

[cooltop]

okay 2 people with 2 different answers? So how would I get him out if he is not safe to be in there?

 

[thominil]

I would go with Innovator as he has been in the hobby for a LONG time.

 

[juice28]

"safe" depends on what you have in the tank...and what you are willing to possibly loose like Inovator said, they are all predators.. I had a green terror as stated earlier and he was exactly that, but he was also about 8 inch across too(huge!) I have very small very docile fish, the most agressive thing is my false percs he got my clown goby... and one of my baby false percs, he actually ate my brittle star which was about as big around as half dollar but once again, he was big enough to do that...it was actually a hitchhiker. they are somewhat opportunistic feeders i actually used to feed him directly so he wouldnt terrorize my tank, as far as getting him out, i just netted him, he always came out when I fed so I dropped a small piece of shrimp in the front, open part of my tank and he came flying then i just swooped him up, good thing is they dont have eyes so netting him is easy

 

[cooltop]

This should be fun trying to capture him any ideals?

 

[cooltop]

mine will only stick one leg out to capture the food i put in there now. Guess I will have to try target feeding him and mabey its just b/c he only been in there for a few days is why he isnt coming out much yet

 

[h8z2luze]

Maybe try it after the lights on the tank have been off awhile. Correct me if im wrong but arent stars mostly nocturnal? My serpant star was always out after the tank light went out.

 

[juice28]

well...depending on how your set up, you could just remove the rock and get him like that... other than that your gonna have to trap him. try a glass with food in the bottom but you'll probably catch everything else first.. id remove the rock if possible, put in a crate/QT tank and put some solid food in it in a place where he has to come out to get it