Lookie what I found

[SouthBayPhoto]

Well...a bit of an update.

He was hanging out a bit from the LR last night, so I figured I'd give it a shot and try and feed him a piece of shrimp again. I took it out of the freezer and cut a piece off and then used a knife to peel the skin off of it. I then put it on my "planter stick" (two prong thing) and slowly put it down till it was just above him but outside of the LR. I moved it around a bit and all of a sudden he got excited and starting moving his tentacles towards it. I then slowed down the movement and ended up holding it still. He grabbed the stick with one tentacle and then tried to get it off the stick/prong with the other. It seemed like it was on there too tight, so i was able to slowly get the stick away from him and then I repositioned it to make it easier for him to grab it.

Put it back down there and he finally used two tentacles to take it off the stick. I was thrilled as heck! He then played with it a little bit (body still in the LR) and then eventually moved it under the LR a bit.

I think he ended up taking a bit of it and eating it, but later I found a little bit of it outside of the LR. So, I'm guessing and hoping he at least ate some of it.

I'm just thrilled that he finally smelled it and went after the food. That makes me happy. I just hope it continues to go well with him now.

[charlie]

Me thinks you have a buddy!!!! Congrats, sometimes it just takes a while.

[Ramer]

Thats great . My serpant ate from a surange yesterday. Well he grabed a pice of frozen formula one cube from it .

[SMSM123]

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooo

[SouthBayPhoto]

Oooookay...dare I ask what that meant? LOL Especially for a first post. LOL!!!

Yup, so far so good...and it looks like he's still alive, so I must be doing something right (or hanging on by a thread, anyway. )

One thing i might do next time is let the shrimp sit out a little longer. I basically took it straight from the freezer, cut it and put it into the tank. Maybe I should let it "warm up" a bit first. WHOOOOPS!

[zhenya]

Hi Mat,

Letting it defrost in some tank water prior to feeding is a good idea, in fact it is a must.
I use plastic shot glasses for it... Have you tried using silversides? All my brittle stars go crazy for it. ;)

[SouthBayPhoto]

Thanks Gene....I might have to try them. Never have. I'll check to see who around here has them. Are they very big? My star is about 7" tip to tip when stretched out. Just wondering if the silversides would be too big. He doesn't even eat the entire piece of shrimp that I feed him now and it's only a little cut off of a normal size "peel & eat" frozen raw shrimp.

Normally when I feed my fish, I grab some tank water in a little plastic Tupperware cup (never used for anything else since the day it was new) and I then put either my flake food or frozen brine shrimp in there and let it sit for a little bit.

I then stir it up (because it'll settle on the bottom of the cup) and then pour it into the tank. This way nothing floats on top and the fish won't be "gulping air" trying to get the food. Seems to work nicely. I'll just do the same with the shrimp. Let it sit in the little bowl for a bit before putting it on the stick and placing it into the tank.

[zhenya]

Mat, they usually couple of inches long at the most. You can cut them into half inch pieces to offer to your starfish. I have long tongs that I used to use to feed my anemones, so I use those to feed the stars. They try to climb on it and fight for the first piece, my red one usually wins...

[SouthBayPhoto]

That's DEFINITELY one thing I need to get. A pair of long tongs for the aquarium. It's a pain in the arse trying to poke everything with that damn planter thing on the bottom of my scraper. LOL!!!!!

[SouthBayPhoto]

Cool! Last night I saw the star come out and hang out near the bottom corner of the tank, stretching his leg up the side of the tank. :-)

As he was heading for the hills (back under the LR), I gave him a piece of shrimp. He eventually took it, but this time I watched him. He doesn't really seem to eat the entire piece at once. Actually, I didn't see him eat it really at all.

What he did was he "rotated" the piece of shrimp in one of his tentacles. It would have been equivalent to one of us "palming" a basketball in our hands. However, he kept rotating the piece around with one "hand" so to speak. I then saw the other arm grabbing small pieces of cc and I'm guessing he was taking the algae off of it. Once his little suction cups on his bristles were done getting the stuff off, he'd throw the piece of cc back down.

I watched him for a good 20 min. I'm wondering if his little suction cups were actually just tearing small pieces of the shrimp off and he was moving them down to his mouth without actually bending his arm/tentacle down to feed himself.

Do you all know if this is normal? It was pretty damn facinating to watch. It's possible he eventually brought the semi-big piece of shrimp under the LR and ate it, but I couldn't wait that long to find out. Was already after 12:30 am when I was watching him. LOL

He only comes out (when he does...only been twice now that I've seen him) when the "nightlight" over my tank is on (the moon light thingy).

Anyway, I was just curious about this eating habit. I was wondering if he was "smelling" or testing the shrimp to make sure it was okay prior to eating it or what. I also didn't know they ate algae. I thought it was mainly detritus and such...or am I nuts? I thought I read that on a link before.

Anyway, just thought it was cool and I wanted to share!

[zhenya]

Mat,

Any update on the little guy? How is he doing with the food?

To answer your questions.., no, they don't smell or try-taste it before consuming it. I believe they sense food presense by a chemical ques, recognize it and pounce on it. Most of the time when I observed mine eating it was rather swift motion of holding the food long enough to move mouth(which is located in the center of the body) over it and that was it. I saw once one of my stars consuming large piece of the silverside in less then a minute. It would probably take alot longer to digest it but it was inside the star in a heart beat.

[SouthBayPhoto]

See...mine isn't that fast. He seems to "play around" with it before he eats it. LOL

He's done better. The other day I put a piece of food down there on the stick and once he "realized" it was there, his little arms waved like you were leaving him on the Titanic while it was sinking!

He quickly grabbed the shrimp with both arms and drew it in near the rock...he then "rolled it around" with his arms a bit, almost like trying to figure out what it was or something...then I think it went under the rock and was gone. I'm guessing he ate it at that point because I didn't see any major spike in amm, nitrite or nitrates to indicate he left it under there to rot. I've only been putting a piece of shrimp down there once a week or so.

Also, I've only been feeding him once all the lights have gone out and only the "moonlight" is on in the tank. That's when he tends to stick his arms (usually two) out from under the LR. I feed him then. I don't know if I stuck the food down there while the lights are on if he would come out for it or not.

But it's definitely fascinating watching him grab for the food this last time. Before he seemed to kind of careless that it was there and took it just for something to do. This time it was like, "Oh heeeelllll yaaa...that's mine!"

So, I'm guessing it's getting a bit more acclimated. He seems to move from "in" the LR to under it most times. I have a little castle in the middle of the tank and for a day he was actually in there, but I think he went in there at night, fell asleep and when he woke up, the lights were on and he said "hell no...I'm not going back home now" and stayed there for the day. LOL That night he was back under the LR.

Definitely a lot of fun to watch him when he does come out...maybe once a week or two I see him late at night after the lights have been out for about 2 hrs or so.