Who killed my Brittle Sea Star?

[jwc3]

I added a medium to large brittle sea star to my tank about 2 weeks ago. For the first week all was quiet -- I'd see him curled up under the live rock during the day, and crawling about at night looking for food. Then, about 3 days ago I realized that I hadn't see him (or her) lately.

I began to suspect foul play, then found evidence of his demise today -- a segment of arm laying on the substrate. I've been unable to locate the rest of his remains, but he is presumed dead. Based on a forensic analysis of the arm, he appears to have been eaten.

So, who is the guilty party? Here is the short list of suspects that remain at large:

1 Hippo Tang
(The largest fish in the tank, but very timid.)
2 Ocellaris Clowns
(Too slow and cute to be guilty, if you ask me.)
1 Bi-color Blenny
(He's been looking quite full lately, he's a bit of a loner, and he's
been nipping at my leathers. He's the top suspect at the moment.)
3 Hermit crabs
(Sure, they have shifty eyes, but they seem too small to pose a
serious threat.)

Any information that leads to the identification of the culprit is greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

They can hide in a very tiny space in the live rock so I would not count him out just yet. They lose arms sometimes as they are kinda' brittle :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Yah they will hide in the darndest places.. I had one that hid behind a HOB overflow, inside the siphon "tube" of a CPR overflow (that's skinny), inside a return flow tube, inside a skimmer. So yah they like to find a nice dark space and hide.

 

[Anonymous]

When your fish start to disappear, you'll know he's still around.

 

[jwc3]

More evidence was discovered this morning. Two more segments of leg and a portion of the central body shell were discovered in the vicinity of the original remains. The Brittle Star was pronounced dead at the sceen of the crime.

So, who among the list of suspects is the perpetrator?

 

[Anonymous]

I would say none are likely unless your hermits are very big. It prolly just died and the clean up crew cleaned up. Sorry.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, if I had to go CSI I'd say it died of natural causes and the hermits will be charged for disturbing a crime scene by pilfering the remains.

 

[Anonymous]

Mine simply exploded one day into many pieces but I suspected my Foxface Rabbit.

 

[Anonymous]

How did you acclimate your brittle star? I would suspect trouble with acclimation, either when you put it into the tank or when your LFS put it into their tanks, before I suspected a predator.

 

[Apophis924]

Had a two serpent starts that have now been reduced to nothing more than a few loose legs squirming on the substrate. they have been like that for a few wek s and i am hoping they will regenrate into complete stars. the only one caught red handed nipping at the stars when they were whole was my Lawn mower blenny. He would seriously do a job on them, i dont know if it was hunger or rage , i think more rage cuz i fed him a lot he always has a lil gut on him between the algea and marine cusine he munches on. As far as acclimation being the problem i doubt it, i have NEVR acclimatied any of my critters beyond making sure the water temp is the same. I just dump them in a net and then into the tank. No losses thus far, I do this for my corals, clean up crews and fish.

 

[Anonymous]

As far as acclimation bewing the problem i doubt it, i have NEVR acclimatied any of my critters beyond making sure the water temp is the same. I just dump them in a net and then into the tank. No losses thus far, I do this for my corals, clean up crews and fish.

Had a two serpent starts that have now been reduced to nothing more than a few loose legs squirming on the substrate

 

[Apophis924]

As far as acclimation bewing the problem i doubt it, i have NEVR acclimatied any of my critters beyond making sure the water temp is the same. I just dump them in a net and then into the tank. No losses thus far, I do this for my corals, clean up crews and fish.

Had a two serpent starts that have now been reduced to nothing more than a few loose legs squirming on the substrate

Pitpat you seemd to have left out the fact that i caught my blenny red handed/red finned tearing the stars apart before I added the blenny i had never seen my serpent stars ripped up like this. the reason you quote something is to maintain the accuracy and spirit of what they are saying not to do a hack cut and paste job to prove a point you cannot validate on your own merits.

 

[Anonymous]

You start by claiming that you can't keep starfish alive, followed by a claim that they don't need to be acclimated. It struck me as funny. Perhaps jwc3 would be interested in hearing from people that don't kill their starfish.

Its great that you have had good luck without acclimation, but it is a very dangerous method IMO. I'd bet that 9 times out of 10 when a starfish falls apart within the first few weeks of being in a new tank the problem is acclimation. They are very sensitive, far more sensitive than most fish and corals in this regard. Again just IMHO.

 

[Anonymous]

You start by claiming that you can't keep starfish alive, followed by a claim that they don't need to be acclimated. It struck me as funny. Perhaps jwc3 would be interested in hearing from people that don't kill their starfish.

Its great that you have had good luck without acclimation, but it is a very dangerous method IMO. I'd bet that 9 times out of 10 when a starfish falls apart within the first few weeks of being in a new tank the problem is acclimation. They are very sensitive, far more sensitive than most fish and corals in this regard. Again just IMHO.

Exactly the case. I'll second the thought.

~wings~

 

[jwc3]

I realize that stars require slow acclimation. I acclimated the brittle sea star for about 30 minutes, slowly adding water from the tank to the plastic bag as it floated in the tank. Was that sufficient, or is even more required?

The Brittle Sea Star was OK for about a week before his demise. Wouldn't acclimation-related problems manifest before then?

 

[Anonymous]

Not necessarily, sometimes it takes several weeks for poor acclimation to kill a brittlestar.

I prefer to slowly drip water into the container the star is in over the course of several hours. IMO 30 minutes is not long enough, but people will disagree with me on that point.

FWIW, if the store you bought the star from didn't acclimate properly it could have been doomed no matter what you did.

 

[Anonymous]

I would consider 30 minutes the bare minimum acclimation time. I am somewhere between that and the PitPat method. Usually it is about 90 minutes with little gulps of tank water being added every 10-15 minutes.

 

[Anonymous]

I realize that stars require slow acclimation. I acclimated the brittle sea star for about 30 minutes, slowly adding water from the tank to the plastic bag as it floated in the tank. Was that sufficient, or is even more required?

The Brittle Sea Star was OK for about a week before his demise. Wouldn't acclimation-related problems manifest before then?

Do a google search on "brittle star acclimation". You will see that some think you should acclimate 2+ hours.

~wings~

 

[Apophis924]

well one goes with what works, in all my years of reefing i have never acclimated beyond letting the temp equal out. At first it was due to ingorance now it is more from impatiance. At anyrate it works for me. I use this method with Snails, Stars, shrimps and even seahorses and all are alive and well and have been for years. seahorse range just over to ttwo years since the dwarf has a short life span. however one acclimates their animals is a choice they have to make. i base mine on results and what works for my system. There is no "natural" or "right" way to acclimate any animal that goes from a vast stable enviroment like an offshore reef to a small glass box that can fit in ones house.

 

[garagebrian]

well one goes with what works, in all my years of reefing i have never acclimated beyond letting the temp equal out. At first it was due to ingorance now it is more from impatiance. At anyrate it works for me. I use this method with Snails, Stars, shrimps and even seahorses and all are alive and well and have been for years. seahorse range just over to ttwo years since the dwarf has a short life span. however one acclimates their animals is a choice they have to make. i base mine on results and what works for my system. There is no "natural" or "right" way to acclimate any animal that goes from a vast stable enviroment like an offshore reef to a small glass box that can fit in ones house.

That is great that it works for you. But I think it is also important to point out that as a general rule of thumb, people will have a better chance of success with things living in their tanks if they do acclimation properly. The salinity and alkalinity values from a LFS and someone's tank can be SIGNIFICANTLY different and no acclimation in that case could cause many dead animals. You might just be lucky that the places you get your livestock from have similar salinity/water parameters as your tank.

I've heard acclimation of starfish should be at least an hour...sometimes longer.

B.