Brittle star, splitting or dieing?

[jeharrisonjr]

Can someone tell me what's happening to this starfish. We thought the clown fish was eating it but it's getting worse.

 

[jeharrisonjr]

nobody knows what's happening here? Notice the signal leg under the rock.

 

[wangspeed]

Looks like it is dying to me. Sorry

 

[Eckolancer]

Dying, that is one of the bad ones that is known for eating fish.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Thats a dead Brittle Starfish.

 

[Eckolancer]

Thats a dead Brittle Starfish.

Not dead yet. I have brought some back from that point before.

 

[Lilly Moore]

How do u help them

 

[Lilly Moore]

Not dead yet. I have brought some back from that point before.

How did you help them

 

[ScubaFish802]

I want to say from previous posts that this is caused by either lack of stability in the tank as a whole, or starvation.

The large majority of starfish unfortunately do not survive in home aquariums.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I want to say from previous posts that this is caused by either lack of stability in the tank as a whole, or starvation.

The large majority of starfish unfortunately do not survive in home aquariums.

Just to point out, Brittle Stars/Serpent Stars are not actually starfish (true starfish are from the taxonomic class "Asteroidea", while Brittle and Serpent Stars are from the class "Ophiuroidea"), and typically do quite well in home aquaria (though large, green serpent stars like the one the OP had specifically are known to prey on sleeping fish, so most people probably don't want to keep them).

Edit: adding that from what I've seen this is how brittle/serpent stars (ophiuroids) die; most people guess it's from water quality swings or starvation, but I've seen this on one brittle star that had been kept for ~20 years. It's possible it may be caused in some cases by water quality, starvation, injury/infection, disease, etc. or that it may just happen when the star is dying, I'm not sure. Either way, if you start seeing this or something that looks like this with either a true starfish or an ophiuroid, I'd assume they're dying (and while I'd still check parameters and such, I'd assume it's unlikely you'd be able to save them).