Brittle Starfish ate my Torch

[AptasiaKilla]

I recently introduced a Torch into my tank and it was thriving for about 4 days… Came home from work and noticed it was missing flesh, took a closer look and seen there was a Brittle Starfish consuming my Torch. I removed THE pest, but there are several others in here and i’m concerned they may continue to eat my Euphilyias. Need tips on how to get rid of these guys and nurturing tips towards my Torch.

13.5 gallon tank and I have one fish (Firefish) with lots of coral. Looking for something that isn’t territorial and will eat something besides just starfish. Open to any suggestions or ideas!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You are mentioning plural brittle stars, are you referring to micro brittle stars? We all have a ton of these in our tanks, they are completely safe and I would not believe they had eaten your torch coral.

 

[twentyleagues]

Brittle star micro or not, I doubt it. Asterina maybe. Something else causing it probably. 4 days old is a good indication of something else.
Hows it doing today?

 

[Llyod276]

Looking at your other corals, looks to be mainly softies, maybe you just don't have the proper environment for a torch?
Ngl, your lightning looks sus.
Granted it's a still shot, but not really seeing movement one way or the other. Makes me wonder about flow. Hard to say. But I would check in to those.
but if it absolutely must die in your tank get a harlequin shrimp and they eradicate what they find and go from there, either return or let it starve...

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

Looking at your other corals, looks to be mainly softies, maybe you just don't have the proper environment for a torch?
Ngl, your lightning looks sus.
Granted it's a still shot, but not really seeing movement one way or the other. Makes me wonder about flow. Hard to say. But I would check in to those.
but if it absolutely must die in your tank get a harlequin shrimp and they eradicate what they find and go from there, either return or let it starve...

I thought Harlequin shrimp don't eat brittle stars?

 

[winxp_man]

Saw a green brittle star eat a nem in my old tank, as I purchased it from the previous owner. Wish I had time to stop the tear down to record it haha.

 

[twentyleagues]

I thought Harlequin shrimp don't eat brittle stars?

As far as I have seen they do not. I had plenty of mini brittle stars and a couple full size ones too when I had my harly pair. They never messed with the brittles.

 

[SquidwardTentacles05]

Brittle stars don't eat coral.

 

[Llyod276]

Dude at an lfs said they will eat fish when they get bigger...

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

Dude at an lfs said they will eat fish when they get bigger...

The green ones do but the others don't.
Most the really small ones stay that way, but even the bigger ones like the banded star only get to 12cm.

 

[Lavey29]

I've got a 10 inch serpent star in the tank and never touched my corals. Neither do my 10000 asterina stars

 

[Louis Z]

Some Starfish spill their guts on their food and then suck it back up . Sort of what a fly does . sometimes an organism that’s dying will attract another that sees the dying as food .

 

[dank.reefer]

I have the the medium sized brown brittle stars living all up in my torches they dont eat them at all. It almost seems like a symbiosis of some sort.

I can attest though that almost every multi head(5-6+) euphylia they seem to pitch 1-2 of the lower heads on initial introduction. When I start with smaller colonies 1-3 heads they seem to do much better. I think it is just the coral acclimating to its new environment.

 

[twentyleagues]

Serpent stars and brittle stars dont eat corals, most dont hunt for and catch food either. They are scavengers they will eat a dead or dying fish, shrimp, possibly try a crab especially if the shell is broken. They may irritate a coral if they travel across it or take up residence with in the coral. Like @dank.reefer above I had 2 good size red serpent stars in my lps reef years ago and I would see them in the branches of the euphyllia all the time corals didnt seem to mind.

 

[Liquid361]

Yeah, as everyone said, they don’t eat torches… not ever. This is a different issue..

 

[gbroadbridge]

I recently introduced a Torch into my tank and it was thriving for about 4 days… Came home from work and noticed it was missing flesh, took a closer look and seen there was a Brittle Starfish consuming my Torch. I removed THE pest, but there are several others in here and i’m concerned they may continue to eat my Euphilyias. Need tips on how to get rid of these guys and nurturing tips towards my Torch.

13.5 gallon tank and I have one fish (Firefish) with lots of coral. Looking for something that isn’t territorial and will eat something besides just starfish. Open to any suggestions or ideas!

Brittle stars only eat dead or decaying coral.

Your torch was already sick and dying and the star is just doing its job.

 

[FishPerson]

A dusky wrasse will eat brittle stars

 

[Science/G]

Some Starfish spill their guts on their food and then suck it back up . Sort of what a fly does . sometimes an organism that’s dying will attract another that sees the dying as food .

Pyloric stomach

 

[Science/G]

Torch was dying the brittle star did not kill it sorry

 

[Louis Z]

Now I don’t want to say whether or not that brittle killed it . You can never say absolutely. Not trying to stir up anything . The reason I say that is I had some pink stubby bristleworms annoy and kill a BTA. I never saw them , they didn’t live in the sand and only came out at lights out .they weren’t the regular bristleworms . Definitely pink and stubby . Everyone that posted discounted what I was experiencing . I was asking for advice . Everything as far as water parameters was ok . Yet the anemone never opened up again . I by some reason turned on the lights on In middle of night and saw all of the bristleworms on the bta . With the lights on they quickly retreated to the live rock . I dipped that live rock in water and out all they came . The bta never recovered . Too far gone . . So now I think that I can never absolutely say that something is impossible based on my limited experience since 2002 when I started .