Best sea star to get?

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tmscott89

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Oh Dang! How'd It Go?
Well I was actually just going to ask about this. Are they similar to fish? As in do they take a few days to get use to the environment before they start exploring? Only reason I ask is after I finally put it in the water last night and he moved around the tank a bit, but I woke up to him being under a certain rock and when I got home it appeared he was under the same rock. When o put a flashlight directly on him I can see some movement but just wanted to make sure he’s ok.
 

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Well I was actually just going to ask about this. Are they similar to fish? As in do they take a few days to get use to the environment before they start exploring? Only reason I ask is after I finally put it in the water last night and he moved around the tank a bit, but I woke up to him being under a certain rock and when I got home it appeared he was under the same rock. When o put a flashlight directly on him I can see some movement but just wanted to make sure he’s ok.
Yeah he’ll take a while to get used to his environment like 2-3 days. They are also nocturnal and sometimes crepuscular (they come out at dawn and dusk)
 
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tmscott89

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Yeah he’ll take a while to get used to his environment like 2-3 days. They are also nocturnal and sometimes crepuscular (they come out at dawn and dusk)
Awesome. Thanks for the info. Best picture I got last night since tank is kinda dirty and it was dark.

2D0D92F2-2B73-4793-B893-F2C9A0D647C0.jpeg
 
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tmscott89

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Awesome thanks for the info! Would you say you feed more shrimp or silverside? Or just try to keep it pretty balanced.
Ordered some silversides today. Just curious how much do you feed just one sea star? And how many times a week?
 
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Serpent and brittle stars are great but they don't go on the glass. I've heard the green ones can eat fish though. I have an orange serpent that looks awesome. Go to the grocery store and get some cheap raw seafood (the stuff I buy is called seafood medley from winco)

You are correct - it is the Green Brittle - Ophiarachna incrassata - that will eat small or otherwise unsuspecting fish. They are great scavengers but what you will notice is that they also hunt at night. The way they do it is stand on their tentacles for lack of a better word and pretend to be a tunnel or cave pass through. When something passes under they collapse and wrap the fish in its arms and consume it.

The green are pretty obvious though. There are other serpent stars that are safer so I say avoid the brittles.
 

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You are correct - it is the Green Brittle - Ophiarachna incrassata - that will eat small or otherwise unsuspecting fish. They are great scavengers but what you will notice is that they also hunt at night. The way they do it is stand on their tentacles for lack of a better word and pretend to be a tunnel or cave pass through. When something passes under they collapse and wrap the fish in its arms and consume it.

The green are pretty obvious though. There are other serpent stars that are safer so I say avoid the brittles.
I’ve never noticed this with my green serpent. However, I have witnessed it attack my ill pufferfish when it was laying on bottom.
 
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I’ve never noticed this with my green serpent. However, I have witnessed it attack my ill pufferfish when it was laying on bottom.

I had this book marked - it is older so may not be relevant. I used to own one and like you didn't have any issues. However, I came across this page and so quickly removed it. I wasn't sure if it was going to get my fish that slept in various rocks at night or just what may happen to pass under it. Figured it would be better off safe than sorry later should something happen.

 
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tmscott89

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They don’t eat algae, detritus and other foods. Silversides I can get here


And shrimp are raw and unsalted from the grocery store
I didn’t notice any unsalted shrimp today while at the store. Is it somewhere specific? I went to Walmart and Kroger both and it was just regular frozen shrimp but nothing labeled unsalted
 

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I didn’t notice any unsalted shrimp today while at the store. Is it somewhere specific? I went to Walmart and Kroger both and it was just regular frozen shrimp but nothing labeled unsalted
No it’s not normally labeled unsalted sorry for the misunderstanding, just make sure it doesn’t have like old bay or anything
 
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No it’s not normally labeled unsalted sorry for the misunderstanding, just make sure it doesn’t have like old bay or anything
Fed my tank my first silverside today. Cut it into thirds and gave two 1/3 pieces to random spots for hermit crabs to eat. Have the other 1/3 to the serpent sea star and all of it is gone. Sea star immediately snagged it, glad to see it’s healthy and eating
 

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