Brittle Starfish

I have 2 brittle stars. I got them because I have read that they are not aggressive, and are good sand sifters. recently, a couple of people, one a LFS operator said that they might kill my fish or inverts. Does any one have them,and how do they fare with you????

PS, they also said if they die, it will kill my tank. now I understand that if i left it in there and it decomposed it would, but is this a major concern????

 

Salutations Ben,

Very good (timely ) article on starfish by Anthony Calfo in Magazine post I just made.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.htm

He is my personal favorite all-time "Reef Keeping Guru" - I always lend great credence to most anything he says...Article will answer many of your questions...

Rgds,

Scott

 

Thankyou Scott, he who hails from the land where you don't tan, you rust!!!LOL is ALKI Beach still a hot spot in the summer??? I was stationed at Bangor on the USS Georgia for 3 years. Love Starbucks. And lest we not forget, Ivars Famous Puget Sound Clam Chowder!!!

 

Hiya Ben...

Live just over a mile from the Bangor gate (up on Ridgetop)...have ran & swam at the subbase gym every morning for the the last 14 years...so we probably crossed paths if you were ever there early AM....

And will never "... forget, Ivars Famous Puget Sound Clam Chowder!!! ..." ---

(even though had to give it up upon my wife's determination that there was "bacon" in it...- :-X foul stuff to us followers of the Prophet Mohammed, "pbuh&quot - have to settle for my own "chowder" nowadays...which is almost as good (just made some "salmon head" two days ago and had some leftovers for lunch today...)

Good luck with your "star"... (if you have a "green" one, would find another home for it...)

Scott
Silverdale, WA
(MAJ, US Army (RET)) - now "IST" Central Kitsap Schools

 

That was a very good read Scott! Karma to you. And I studied mine very carefully just now as I added 23.5 more lbs of LR and rearranged my reef. They dont look green to me. They look Tan and black, however, one of them looks like it is banded under the spines like the serpent star with no spines. he is the one that looks more tan. Interesting.

And I spent many an AM playing basketball in the gym in the morning when I was in AN/BQQ-6 School (sonar). my stint there was fom 88-92. I later became the LPO of the sonar division of the Georgia. Good to hear from a fellow vet.
STS1/SS/DV

 

I moving this thread out of the fish forum as brittle stars aren't fish  It will find a new home in the invert forum.

Serpeant stars can come in many color forms, but usaully solid orange, yellow, red and green.  Yours just sounds like a brittle star to me.  No worries there.  I answerred this same question a while back, do a search in 3reef, you'll find the posts.

edit: did the search for you ;D

brittle star thread

 

the only ones ive heard about being aggressive are the green ones most of the other colors i have not heard of not much aggressivness in other colors

 

Theres zero difference between to red>orange>yellow>green serpeant stars, none. They're in fact the same creature. Pick up The Modern Aquarium (or is it aquaria), #3 I belive, theres a great picture of baby sepreant stars in every color morph I mentioned, bred by mitch Gibbs. They're all from the same parent, the green ones, the yellow ones, the red ones and even the yellow ones.

 

that i did not know thnx for that info gresham