question about brittle star

[sahmad43]

I have a brittle star in 90 gallon and i have two questions regarding this:

1- I observed that he is touching/feeling the corals in my tank , is it normal n can he inflict damage to the corals doing that? are these brittle stars reef safe?

2- I noticed that one night he was literally trying to go after the ocellaris clowns , sinec at night the clown fish swim in the corner and are kinda slow so the brittle star was tryign to grab them with his arms .. glad he couldnt .
are these brittle stars known to hunt fish ?

[dave00gt]

I have a brittle star in 90 gallon and i have two questions regarding this:

1- I observed that he is touching/feeling the corals in my tank , is it normal n can he inflict damage to the corals doing that? are these brittle stars reef safe?

2- I noticed that one night he was literally trying to go after the ocellaris clowns , sinec at night the clown fish swim in the corner and are kinda slow so the brittle star was tryign to grab them with his arms .. glad he couldnt .
are these brittle stars known to hunt fish ?

yup ! if the prey is slow enough the brittle star will eat.

i would feed it shrimp, so he wont go after your livestock. I feed mine shrimp.

[sahmad43]

thanks dave
do you have corals in your tank ? do you know if these brittle stars are safe for corals ?

[dave00gt]

thanks dave
do you have corals in your tank ? do you know if these brittle stars are safe for corals ?

have you tried checking out a serpent sea star, they come in various colors and move exactly the same as a brittle star, i do like the brittle stars cause they look like underwater tarantulas.

here is some info on these

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_...catid=2079&N=0

It says they are reef safe

[rjs5134]

I had a brittle star hitchhike his way into my tank on a piece of live rock when he was very small. He quickly set up shop in a piece of dead coral I used as a base and hasn't moved since. Upon arrival he was smaller than the palm of my hand, now he's the size of a salad plate. I have yet to see him leave that piece of coral, he just gathers up whatever comes near.