Brittle Star eaten alive..

[Abiroad]

Last night I got home and noticed all my fish in the back corner of the tank, I look to see the they are all eating my brittle star fish, and that she is still alive, trying to escape them.

They literally ate pretty much her whole body, but her legs were still moving for hours after i quarentined her, then she died she was red and beautiful and i loved her, none of my fish had ever bothered her before

we did do a tank transfer three days ago, but she had seemed fine...

has anyone else had this happen? if i replace her will my fish just attack again? i had her well over 8 months-1year with no problems

 

[tomtom14]

I don't have a brittle star so I haven't had the problem. But I think if it happened once it will happen again. I think it may be because the brittle star is normally first in the tank so the fish dont notice it. But now the fish are in before the star they must have seen her and just gone straight for her. Sorry for your lose

 

[melosu58]

Sorry about the loss. If they did it once they will do it again. You cant change nature.

 

[jeremy upshir]

that's weird.. i put my brittle star fish in after i had a bunch of fish and nothing ever bothers it.. maybe it was sick or something?

 

[mr_X]

I'm wondering if the starfish was dying due to being exposed to air or something else during the transfer and the fish were just cleaning up the mess. When starfish die, they do so quickly and fish or no fish, they look like they have been gnawed on.

 

[Abiroad]

yeah i thought it was strange too because she was one of the last additions to the tank, no one bugged her for 8 months, then when i switched tanks, her and the fish went in at the same time, and she lived happily in the new aquascape for two days until last night BAM massacre,

the only thing i can think of is maybe she got stressed from the tank swap, and fish could sense she was on her way out?

 

[mr_X]

"She" probably started falling apart before the fish arrived to chow down. It's very important to make sure the oral disc does not touch air. Usually brittle stars are pretty resilient, but I suppose it can happen to any type of star.

 

[jeremy upshir]

I agree something had to of happened or it go sick somehow.. usually fish leave them alone and I would try one again if you wanted

 

[Swicicki]

I had a green one that would catch and eat goldfish so maybe it's like karma

 

[Serafin]

Yeah a good friend of mine had one and sadly let air get to him when moving from q tank to display tank. It showed bad signs quickly and started to break up. During the one evening the Cuc and fish all but completely made him vanish.