a good choice?

[clowninround]

I am looking at getting a red brittle star. But I remember reading somewhere something bad about this starfish, just wondering if anyone knows if this is a truley reef safe star and that it is fish friendly? Here is the site

http://www.thesea.org/catalog/product/Reef_Tank_Red_Brittle_Star.html

 

[mojoreef]

As with most brittles they are grazers while small but can turn over to omnivores when they get larger, so you run the risk of it down the road. If you run a dsb system they can deplete the required bacteria with in them, so that should be another concideration if you run one.


Mike

 

[clowninround]

Yeah, thats too much for me to worry about, I'll just stick to what I have. Do sand sifters deplete bacteria too? I have 2 of them in a 150.

 

[mojoreef]

They sure do clowninaround, they get them a couple of ways. One through direct ingestion and the other is when they detritus, In a DSB all detritus is engulfed in bacteria trying to reduce it. What a brittle star does is basically take in detritus/cyanos and process it down into smaller peices, they are good for stiring the sand which is a very important thing for a DSb to work. So a small one would take care of the stiring but not depete the bed. Tough call.


Mike

 

[seaham358]

IMO your fine with the sand sifters.... Not sure how they could effect the SB? Maybe eating pods thats about it...They are omnivores and are great for reef aquariums for eating detritus and left over food, I see this as a Plus..... I had 2 in my 125 and gave one away still have 1. It is doing great at kepping the SB clean.

 

[clowninround]

I think i'm good on pods. I have a green manderin and he seems to be fat and happy. Never seen him eat anything I put in there, just pecking around on the rocks and sand. And when I clean out my wet dry filter there is always these huge brown flea type looking bugs. Are those pods too, because I can't see the white ones like I can in my 55. Aren't the sand sifters good to keep your dsb from crashing, or does that matter?

 

[quarryshark]

I have one since Feb, same color. He has doubled in size!! Went from about 5" acrossed to nearly 10" now!!
Hasn't bothered anyone, mojoreef is right, has become a meat eater. I target feed him and his equal sized banded serpent cousin little bits of scallop several times a week. They are both pretty cool.
I have a DSB and 2 sand sifters also, no pod problems here. When I look after lights out..pods galore!!

 

[mojoreef]

Like I said its a toss up with the DSB. The experts say not to put anything like it in the bed as it depletes the bacterial population. For me the stiring they perform is worth the small loss (if you dont keep to many) of bacteria.
Side note the stars dont really clean the bed, although they take up a small amount as energy, what they do is to stir the food down to the bacteria. In a sand sediment system the bacteria are the only ones that reduce food/detritus.


Mike

 

[clowninround]

cool! Good information thanks a bunch! Hey QS, how ya doing? Hey guys I read on the forum about someones tank crashing cuz of a DSB, just to make sure, don't know if you guys answered my question or not, but if the sand IS stirred, will I still run a risk of that happening in my tank? I SO love my DSB!

 

[quarryshark]

That why sand sifting critter are a must. They keep the top layer from hardening and causing trouble. Where the crashes come from are from an animal like a goby digging up large areas releasing gases into the water column. Thats why you only try and manipulate the top 1/2" or so of the dsb. From what I understand, these crashes come only from tanks that suffer from a lack of routine care.

 

[clowninround]

That makes me feel a lot better!