Warning about this brittle starfish!!!

[mngo95132]

This brittle starfish had just wiped out the whole population of my Fire fish(2) and Purple Fire fish(5) in only 2 weeks. If you have small fish hiding/sleeping in the live rock, this predator will hunt down your fish and consume them at nights. Attached is the pic:

[iwishtofish]

I'm sorry to hear you lost so many fish to it! How did you discover this was the culprit?

Oh, by the way...

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

[Pimps]

Wow. Thanks for the heads up.

How come everyone posts the creepy crawlies late at night? lol

[lllosingit]

Had them in my tanks for years and never had a problem, Mine would just collect food that drifted near his arms I also spot fed him a couple times a week so maybe he was fed enough that he didn't feel the need to hunt down other meals.

[acrodave]

i know the green/gold brittles eat fish and get huge

[mngo95132]

I'm sorry to hear you lost so many fish to it! How did you discover this was the culprit?

Oh, by the way...

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

In general, these Fire/Purple Fire fish always sleep inside the live rock. They only come out of the live rock during daytime when the lights are on. About 2 weeks ago, I introduced 5 Purple Fire fish and 2 Fire fish to my reef tank, almost every day, I 1 fish fever then the other days until I couldn't count one single Fire/Purple Fire fish. At first, I thought they were scared of other fish and stayed in hiding. Couple days later, when I didn't see them coming during feeding time, I knew they were the victims of this predator brittle starfish because only it could get through the tightly spots in the live rock. Also, one night, when the lights were off for about 30 minutes, I saw one of my last Purple Fire fish, which I didn't see it come out for food, suddenly dashed out in front of the tank. It looked like it was scared of something just like when we see a ghost in a dark room. If it wasn't the brittle starfish, then what was it? Therefore, this morning, I removed all of my rocks and got that SOTB out of my reef tank and also some of its buddies.:furious:

[mngo95132]

Had them in my tanks for years and never had a problem, Mine would just collect food that drifted near his arms I also spot fed him a couple times a week so maybe he was fed enough that he didn't feel the need to hunt down other meals.

Do you have small fish like Fire/Purple Fire fish or Dottybacks who like to hide/sleep in the live rock?

[mngo95132]

i know the green/gold brittles eat fish and get huge

My was about 7" long.

[flying_dutchman]

My pink serpent starfish, finished both my clowns. You could see a huge bump in the belly of the serpent the day after the 2nd disappeared.
:furious:

[acrodave]

My was about 7" long.

ive seen some of the green ones that had a head bigger than a halfdollar and each arms about 9in

[ludnix]

To be fair, that sounds like circumstantial evidence.

[Metal7fold22]

i had a pretty big green brittle...never had a problem i would feed him a silverside every 3 days or so...i had many small fish too he never was interested...fish would even chill on top of him...it didnt care much bout them on him lol

[Ritten]

Firefish were not meant to be kept in groups, they take each other out.

[acrodave]

ot i have kept firefish in groups for years

[Ritten]

ot i have kept firefish in groups for years

I should have said IME.

[mngo95132]

Now I know what had happened to my little Fire and Purple Fire fish. I just stumbled upon this website which shows how the brittle starfish captures small fish with their arms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2YfB3LD8-A&feature=player_embedded

[ryanb91]

man that sucks

[Untamed12]

To be fair, that sounds like circumstantial evidence.

I agree.

[Salamander]

FWIW I had two fire fish which disappeared one day. After a few days I thought they were goners. Then about 3 months later my wife commented on the new fish...It was both missing fire fish! I couldn't believe it.

[arredondojason]

i have a harliquim serpent star and no problems at all.

[ludnix]

Now I know what had happened to my little Fire and Purple Fire fish. I just stumbled upon this website which shows how the brittle starfish captures small fish with their arms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2YfB3LD8-A&feature=player_embedded

I'm still not convinced it was the brittle starfish. I've seen firefish disappear and die off on their own in tanks without predators. They do not seem to be hardy fish.

You could hand feed a fish to almost any invert and have it killed, it catching it on it's own is a completely different story.

[ser_renely]

Yeah, very suspect that it was the star, but it could be. I would suspect something else, mantis, crab, pistol etc...

My pistol shrimp utterly murdered all my firefish and friends. Took me a long while to figure that out, till I got lucky and saw a firefish come out a hole after I heard a few snaps. He was all cut up, and died.

You see any bulges in it?

[spamreefnew]

when i had a serpant star i was always missing fish here and there..it sux cause they r great sand sifters

[mngo95132]

Yeah, very suspect that it was the star, but it could be. I would suspect something else, mantis, crab, pistol etc...

My pistol shrimp utterly murdered all my firefish and friends. Took me a long while to figure that out, till I got lucky and saw a firefish come out a hole after I heard a few snaps. He was all cut up, and died.

You see any bulges in it?

I didn't see any bulges on my 2 brittle stars (this one was 7"-8" and another green one was 5"-6") when I pulled them out of my tank. Maybe the brittle starfish digested the meal since I had to wait unit Sunday (3 days later after I saw my last Purple Fire fish) to remove the live rock.

[noahm]

I also find it unusual that not only would it catch one, but all of your firefish. The large green ones are known predators. Not saying it wasn't the brittle, but the rest for the most part will eat anything left around including a dead fish. What strikes me as odd is that it would be so hungry as to kill and eat several. I have 6 or 7 large serpents and they wont finish a meal the size of a small fish. They will eat some and then just leave the rest. You have no anemones or pistols or mantis or crabs in your tank? Although a pistol won't kill fish to eat, it will defend its hole viciously. Any of the aforementioned critters are much more likely than a red brittle.

[BeanMachine]

This brittle starfish had just wiped out the whole population of my Fire fish(2) and Purple Fire fish(5) in only 2 weeks. If you have small fish hiding/sleeping in the live rock, this predator will hunt down your fish and consume them at nights. Attached is the pic:

I'm curious how long you had the group of firefish before they started going missing.

[mngo95132]

I'm still not convinced it was the brittle starfish. I've seen firefish disappear and die off on their own in tanks without predators. They do not seem to be hardy fish.

You could hand feed a fish to almost any invert and have it killed, it catching it on it's own is a completely different story.

Maybe you are right on some time fish just disappear for no reasons. However, I am convinced that I had my first 2 Fire fish and 5 Purple Fire fish for more than 1 month and were very heathy/active. At night, they hid/slept in the live rock. Daytime, they were very active and always stayed near the water surface searching food. Just 2 weeks ago, they suddenly just disappeared one at a time without seeing any dead bodies. Some times when the lights were out, I could see those arms of the brittle stars crawling around the live rock. Then I realized that those were the cause of the problem and I had to take action.

[mngo95132]

I also find it unusual that not only would it catch one, but all of your firefish. The large green ones are known predators. Not saying it wasn't the brittle, but the rest for the most part will eat anything left around including a dead fish. What strikes me as odd is that it would be so hungry as to kill and eat several. I have 6 or 7 large serpents and they wont finish a meal the size of a small fish. They will eat some and then just leave the rest. You have no anemones or pistols or mantis or crabs in your tank? Although a pistol won't kill fish to eat, it will defend its hole viciously. Any of the aforementioned critters are much more likely than a red brittle.

No, I only have 2 cleaner and 1 fire shrimps. When I removed ALL of my live rock out of my reef tank, checked every single rock for any evidence of the fish hiding in the live rock, none. I even let the live rock dried for 45minutes to see if there any additional predators beside those brittle star fish, none also. I even broiled one single big live rock, about 8", when I saw a red brittle worm, about 3", hiding inside the hole and resisted to come out even as I cooked it for 30 minutes. My conclusion is there were not additional predators beside those 2 brittle star fish because I had removed and checked all of my live rock in my reef tank.

[mngo95132]

I'm curious how long you had the group of firefish before they started going missing.

I had my fish for more than a month before the disappearing. They were very active and heathy. They always stayed near top of the tank searching for food. If all of them just died of, I still could have recovered the dead bodies. Could I?

[Untamed12]

A dead fish body of that small size doesn't last very long. IME, it is lucky if you find a bone or bit of skull in less than 24 hours. Lots of critters dispose of a dead fish VERY quickly, including your starfish.

I'm not inclined to believe that your brittlestar captured perfectly healthy fish. To my eye, they just don't move that quickly. It would be very quick to take advantage of a weak or dead fish, however.

If you don't want your brittlestars anymore, I'm sure you could find others would would take them from you.

[BeanMachine]

A dead fish body of that small size doesn't last very long. IME, it is lucky if you find a bone or bit of skull in less than 24 hours. Lots of critters dispose of a dead fish VERY quickly, including your starfish.

I'm not inclined to believe that your brittlestar captured perfectly healthy fish. To my eye, they just don't move that quickly. It would be very quick to take advantage of a weak or dead fish, however.

If you don't want your brittlestars anymore, I'm sure you could find others would would take them from you.

I agree.

Did you really dry all the rock, or just a few pieces? Did you save any of the old pieces to maintain the critters you boiled off the others? You may see a small cycle.

[mngo95132]

A dead fish body of that small size doesn't last very long. IME, it is lucky if you find a bone or bit of skull in less than 24 hours. Lots of critters dispose of a dead fish VERY quickly, including your starfish.

I'm not inclined to believe that your brittlestar captured perfectly healthy fish. To my eye, they just don't move that quickly. It would be very quick to take advantage of a weak or dead fish, however.

If you don't want your brittlestars anymore, I'm sure you could find others would would take them from you.

In general, brittle star fish are beneficial if you have large fish or small fish which don't hide/sleep in the live rock. As for those SOTB, sorry it was too late as I just :fun2: because I just don't want to take any chances.

[mngo95132]

I agree.

Did you really dry all the rock, or just a few pieces? Did you save any of the old pieces to maintain the critters you boiled off the others? You may see a small cycle.

I just let my rock stayed in the room for 45 minutes to make sure that there were not additional unwanted creatures in the rock. It was a really long day for me as I had to remount all of my soft and hard corals. So far so good. But I still see some of the little red brittle worms crawling on the rock at nights. I was told that those are also beneficial critters. I really don't know what will happen when they grow too big again. Wish me luck:frog:

[BLKTANG]

Ive seen a Star Brittle 12+"s in diameter grab a 5" Yellow Tang and consume 50% in an hour.

[mngo95132]

Ive seen a Star Brittle 12+"s in diameter grab a 5" Yellow Tang and consume 50% in an hour.

Yea, I was shocked after I watched the Youtube's video of the brittle star feeding which I posted on page 1. They have such strong arms to grab food when they grow too big.

[650-IS350]

I've read of certain stars ( like large Green brittle stars AKA GREEN DEATH ) as active hunters. I think you can search google for " CAVE HUNTING " start fish etc.

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/giant-green-brittle-stars-of-death-when.html

[mngo95132]

I've read of certain stars ( like large Green brittle stars AKA GREEN DEATH ) as active hunters. I think you can search google for " CAVE HUNTING " start fish etc.

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/giant-green-brittle-stars-of-death-when.html

Thanks for the link. From that video, you can clearly see how fast and hungry that brittle star fish is when its senses the present of the poor little Dottyback fish. Now I am 100% convinced that those 2 brittle star fish which I removed from my tank definitely wiped out my entire goby population when they slept at nights. That video also reminds me on one night, when my last Purple Fire fish didn't show up during feeding time, I was worried. Then that night when the lights were out after 30 minutes as I was standing in front of the tank, suddenly, the last Purple Fire fish dashed out of its hiding place to the front of the tank. The little poor fish looked absolutely terrified as I could see that on its face. Much worse than the Dottyback in that video because that Dottyback still has a chance to escape during daytime. The next day and the following days none of them showed up again. I still feel sorry for my little poor goby fish.

[noahm]

I wish mine would eat my dottyback...

[mngo95132]

I wish mine would eat my dottyback...

Now you believe they are predators. Anyway, what's the problem with your Dottyback? I used to have one. It was so aggressive that whenever I introduced new small fish such as the Royal Gramma, it would harassed unit the Royal Gramma starved to death. The Six Line Wrasse was even worst. It even killed the new bigger wrasses. Therefore, I decided to just get rid of them and just the peaceful small fish like Fire and clown fish.