Brittle Star Dying??

[Jiggz]

i have two black brittle stars in my tank and they both look as if they are dying. first they have these white stripes around their arms the white areas look similar to coral bleaching, and i have seen spines on their arms fall off. they also look like they're crumbling like u would crumble a peice of papaer. but they're still moving. i dont have any fish in the tank just turbos, astreas, and cerith snailsn and feather dusters. i also have one yellow brittle satar that looks fine. this is a 50gallon tank and SG is at 1.025. i havent tested the water yet but will get on it asap. so are these two stars dying and should i remove them from the tank?

 

[Anonymous]

How large are they Jiggz? Big ones might may need target feeding in a tank with a low bioload. If you have no fish to be feeding, then they wouldn't be able to feed on the food the fish don't get, nor the fish waste.

 

[eukaryote]

I have to target feed mine now and then or else they start to look bad. I've had them for about five years now, and it took me a year or so to figure this out, but now they seem to be very active all the time. Also, if you've had any significant fluctuations in salinity or other parameters, that can stress echinoderms pretty severely. That usually goes without saying, and applies to most any marine organisms, but echinoderms seem to be among the least tolerant.

 

[Jiggz]

they're about 8inches from tip to tip. i target feed the two black ones and they grab the food but im not really sure if they eat it. the yellow brittle actually comes out of the rocks when i drop food in and i see him eat it. the other two just hides in the rocks and dont move that much. im feeding all of them peices of shrimp. should i take them out, they're still moving around but look pretty weak.

 

[Anonymous]

they're about 8inches from tip to tip. i target feed the two black ones and they grab the food but im not really sure if they eat it. the yellow brittle actually comes out of the rocks when i drop food in and i see him eat it. the other two just hides in the rocks and dont move that much. im feeding all of them peices of shrimp. should i take them out, they're still moving around but look pretty weak.

Have you looked at them at night? They might be inactive during the day and get going after lights out. Can you post pics? It might be easier to diagnose the problem if you can.