tiger brittle star fish?

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by Marie0912, Jul 12, 2010.

to remove this notice and enjoy 3reef content with less ads. 3reef membership is free.

  1. Marie0912

    Marie0912 Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2010
    Messages:
    347
    Location:
    Central Square.ny
    I really like the look of the star fish in a tank my lfs as the tiger brittle star on sale for 8 $. Can I have them in a reef aquarium and then later can I get another star fish or are can I only have one in my tank.

    What would be the best easy star fish to star with that is reef safe and won't eat my fish?

    Thank you
     
  2. Click Here!

  3. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2010
    Messages:
    4,780
    What size tank? What size star? What size fish?

    The brittles and serpents are generally the easy ones. They're different from the normal starfish, in a totally different family. They're as closely related to starfish as urchins or sea cucumbers.
     
  4. Marie0912

    Marie0912 Fire Shrimp

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2010
    Messages:
    347
    Location:
    Central Square.ny
    Oops I new I forgot something.
    My tank is 120 gallon and I have so far
    6 chromis 2 clown 1 diamond goby, 3 banggaii cardinal, 1 cleaner shrimp and a few hermit crab.

    So they are safe what about other kind of star fish
     
  5. divott

    divott Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2009
    Messages:
    3,658
    Location:
    holland landing, ontario ,canada
    yes you can have more than 1 in a tank that size. ive got 3 in my 90. 2 other stars that i would stay away from are the linkias and choclate chips. the linkias a hard to keep and need a very established tank, the choc's are plain destructive.
     
  6. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2010
    Messages:
    4,780
    You can definitely do a few of them, maybe 3-4, possibly more, depending on your rockwork and how much room they have to forage and hide.

    The only thing to watch out for is some of the brittle stars. They have a chance of eating fish. The green ones are notorious for it. The blacks also have a chance, but smaller than the greens. Others might also eat fish, but I haven't heard too much about it.

    The serpent stars don't eat fish, and are likely your best bet, since you have some kinda small fish that the predatory ones could easily catch.

    Any starfish that isn't a brittle or serpent is kinda hard to keep, as most of their dietary requirements are somewhat of an unknown, and they tend not to live too long. There's some others that are predatory on corals as well.