Green Brittle Star Help.. Please!

[skankergee]

My GREEN BRITTLE STAR just dropped 3 legs in 3 days. my water is just fine and I add calcium and iodine to the water..... is it just molting or what. the only thing in there that might mess with it is 2 PEPPERMINT SHRIMP.

[patsfan1130]

My GREEN BRITTLE STAR just dropped 3 legs in 3 days. my water is just fine and I add calcium and iodine to the water..... is it just molting or what. the only thing in there that might mess with it is 2 PEPPERMINT SHRIMP.

As its name suggests, a brittle star has a tendency to fall apart. It may purposely throw off an arm when threatened. The dropped arm may continue to wriggle to distract the predator while the brittle star escapes. The brittle star is able to do this because the ossicles in its arms are connected by mutable connective tissue. The brittle star can rapidly change the consistency of this tissue from rock hard to almost liquid. The arm eventually re-grows, but it can take months before it is fully restored. I have had brittle stars lose tenticles before but never 3 in as many days. I do not believe that shedding tenticles is a part of any "molting" process that it may go through

[RayPollett]

My GREEN BRITTLE STAR just dropped 3 legs in 3 days. my water is just fine and I add calcium and iodine to the water..... is it just molting or what. the only thing in there that might mess with it is 2 PEPPERMINT SHRIMP.

What do your Ca and iodine meassure?

Ray

[Ninong]

My GREEN BRITTLE STAR just dropped 3 legs in 3 days. my water is just fine and I add calcium and iodine to the water..... is it just molting or what. the only thing in there that might mess with it is 2 PEPPERMINT SHRIMP.

Did you just recently get it or have you had it for several weeks already? The reason I ask is that very often echinoderms are subjected to irreversible internal damage as a result of osmotic shock caused by improper handling during collection and transport. All echinoderms are very sensitive to changes in salinity and need to be acclimated very slowly. Even if you did a very careful slow-drip acclimation yourself, it is possible that the animal was subjected to improper handling before you got it.

If it is otherwise healthy, it should regenerate the missing arms. This assumes that this is not a recent acquisition and that your "water is just fine." What exactly does "just fine" mean? I assume you mean you are maintaining natural seawater salinity of ~35 ppt, something that is important to the health of all seastars. Calcium and alkalinity would not be as important as they would be for corals but these parameters should be within normal ranges. I wonder why you are adding iodine? It is such a toxic element that you want to be certain not to exceed natural seawater concentrations of 0.06 ppm total iodide/iodate. Iodine is contained in the foods we feed our tanks and it would be very unlikely to be depleted to the point that it required dosing in anything but the most unusual aquarium. A recent study of 23 different reef tanks revealed that every single one of them had elevated levels of iodide/iodate. Even the tanks that had never been dosed with iodine had concentrations double that of natural seawater and tanks that had been regularly dosed with iodine had levels several times that of natural seawater. Not a single one of these 23 tanks had iodine levels less than twice NSW levels. The minimum was 2x NSW levels of I and the maximum was 41.4x NSW levels of I: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-0...ture/index.htm

As you are probably already aware, Ophiarachna incrassata (the Atlantic green brittle star) is exceptionally predatory for a brittle star. You will want to keep it well fed at all times as it gets larger. These seastars are notorious fish eaters.

[skankergee]

OH CRAP!!!! I have read a couple times that it is best to add iodine to your reef tank,,,,, but now two people have just told me it can be very bad to add it. I will do a series of water changes starting tonight. I want only that my reef and all who live in it are happy. I did not know the star ate that much either. Poor guy wasnt getting enough food too! : (
this is my water...
temp-80
salt- 1.025
Ca.-500
amonia-o.25
nitrite-0.25
nitrate-0.0
ph.-7.5
I started with a cc bed then added coral sand
I have a couple small live rocks
I have had a couple blennys and a couple small clown gobys in there longer then the star and they are fine. And the star doesnt like my tube anemone, he avoids it.
Now, I'm no expert, only been doing the reef tank 4 months, although i have kept freshwater tanks for 30 years.
I dont have a way to test the iodine, guess I should get a way, huh....
The corals are # 1 in there,,,, do you think I should get rid of the star?
I have just had it about a month.
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[Ninong]

OH CRAP!!!! I have read a couple times that it is best to add iodine to your reef tank,,,,,

A lot of the people in this hobby, including certain "hobby authors," sell various potions and additives for reef tanks. Some of them recommend a lot of unnecessary stuff.

but now two people have just told me it can be very bad to add it. I will do a series of water changes starting tonight.

Yes, water changes would be a good idea right now but iodine is probably not your biggest problem. That's just a guess since we don't know for sure how high it might be but chances are it is not the cause of your problems. Based on your parameters you have more serious problems right now. (P.S. -- I guess if you have been dosing iodine a lot it could very well be a major problem. Hard to say without knowing what its concentration is in your tank.)

I want only that my reef and all who live in it are happy. I did not know the star ate that much either. Poor guy wasnt getting enough food too!

The Atlantic brittle star is a high risk seastar with a very nasty reputation. Once they are large enough and hungry enough, you will have problems.

this is my water...
temp-80

OK

salt- 1.025

OK

Ca.-500

OK, but a bit on the high side. Don't let it get any higher than that. I try to keep mine between 425-475 ppm. What is your alkalinity?

amonia-o.25

Ammonia should be undetectable.

nitrite-0.25

This is too high. Nitrite should be no higher than 0.1 ppm. Undetectable would be better.

nitrate-0.0

This is probably not an accurate reading. If you have 0.25 ppm total ammonia and 0.25 ppm nitrite, you almost certainly do not have zero nitrate.

ph.-7.5

This is much too low and a serious problem. Ideally you want to keep pH between 8.1-8.5, never below 7.8 and never above 8.6. Your target for pH should be 8.2-8.3 but it will always be at its lowest in the morning before the lights come on and higher late in the afternoon after the lights have been on all day. Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley's article on solutions to pH problems: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...e2002/chem.htm

I started with a cc bed then added coral sand

Not exactly ideal. One or the other would have been better. Crushed coral substrates deeper than about 1/2" are difficult to maintain because they trap detritus. Mixing crushed coral and sand results in all of the larger particle stuff rising to the top eventually.

I have a couple small live rocks

Additional live rock would be beneficial.

I dont have a way to test the iodine, guess I should get a way, huh....

A good rule is to never add anything unless you have tested for it and know it to be deficient in your tank. This is especially true for iodine and strontium, both of which are toxic at elevated levels. It is amazing how many "experts" recommend regular dosing of these two elements without bothering to even mention testing for them first. Strontium at elevated levels interferes with calcification in corals because it is so similar chemically to calcium. It causes the exact same sort of problem in human bones. Elevated strontium levels mess up calcium absorption resulting in deformed bones.

Iodine is toxic. That's why it is used in dips to kill pathogens on incoming wild collected SPS for example. Shrimp, for example, cleanse their systems of toxic iodine by depositing it in their exoskeletons. Then they molt the exoskeleton to get rid of the toxic iodine.

The corals are # 1 in there,,,, do you think I should get rid of the star?

I would return the green brittle star. Since you have corals in your tank I will move this thread to the Reef Aquariums forum.