Saltwater & Reef

Chris-Nicol · 08-03-2011, 01:22 PM

Does anyone know if these are common hitchhikers? Or is there anything that resembles them? The reason I ask is because I appear to have a few on a piece of LR that I got at the wkend with polyps on it! They never rlly come out of holes in the rock though! I have just seen one of the bodies once and it looked like the serpent star body

Chris-Nicol · 08-04-2011, 04:54 PM

Anyone able to help?

Rscomia · 08-04-2011, 04:55 PM

can you get a picture I dont hear of them being hitchikers very often

Chris-Nicol · 08-04-2011, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rscomia

can you get a picture I dont hear of them being hitchikers very often

Well I've only seen one completely once! I just see their legs poking out of holes! I will try to tak a photo but it probably won't be great quality

Tomchong22 · 08-04-2011, 06:09 PM

Yes they are very common and a good addition to your tank. No need to worry about them

**nxb161** · 08-04-2011, 10:22 PM

Xtalreef - Reef Saltwater Aquarium

serpent or MINI BRITTLE STARS ?

twisted metal · 08-05-2011, 04:18 AM

There serpent stars. Much smaller in size, but close. Good small cuc at night. Well for the area around there hole anyways. Nothing to worrie about.

**nxb161** · 08-05-2011, 07:19 AM

I have a tiger serpent star in my one tank, and a red in the other. As said very nice additions. Sometimes I even get a long pair of tweezers and target feed them some chunks of shrimp. At night I can see them out and about when I spy, but for the most part just some long legs during the days at feeding time.

deepseadan · 08-05-2011, 04:52 PM

They are probably little serpent stars. A while back I got some green star polyps that wouldn't open, I saw little arms coming out so I did a quick dip. A little serpent star came immediately. I don't like serpent stars, they will eventually cause problems with fish. When they get big, most experienced reef keepers consider them to non reef safe because of their habits of catching fish. I was always told they were reef safe, but after a couple of my favorite (and most expensive) fish disappeared, I realized the culprit. He was a master fish catcher.

MrPeon99 · 08-05-2011, 05:18 PM

Deepseadan, sounds more like you're talking about a green brittle starfish, which is/can be an active predator. And are very good at catching fish. I have a brittle starfish that is over 12" from tip to tip and it doesn't mess or try to catch anything in my tank.

**nxb161** · 08-05-2011, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrPeon99

Deepseadan, sounds more like you're talking about a green brittle starfish, which is/can be an active predator. And are very good at catching fish. I have a brittle starfish that is over 12" from tip to tip and it doesn't mess or try to catch anything in my tank.

I agree, I have a LARGE one with some small fish, and he never tries to go after them, snails, crabs, or shrimp.

deepseadan · 08-05-2011, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrPeon99

Deepseadan, sounds more like you're talking about a green brittle starfish, which is/can be an active predator. And are very good at catching fish. I have a brittle starfish that is over 12" from tip to tip and it doesn't mess or try to catch anything in my tank.

Yeah I get confused with names, what I had was a Ophiarachnid not a ophiocoma.