Green Brittle Star Reef Sage?

[Fishinwall]

So I thought brittle starfish were supposed to be reef safe. Today I came home from work and found my pulsing Xenia island in the middle of my tank.

I couldn’t imaging how it could have been moved there. It’s fairly large and healthy.

So tonight when the lights were out I thought I’d take a peek and the island had moved again...this time I found it being dragged by my large green brittle star into his lair! what the heck!

Has anyone seen anything like this?
Here’s a photo of him

 

[Fishinwall]

 

[Fishinwall]

 

[Fishinwall]

Ok no idea how to edit posts for typos!

 

[SandJ]

I knew the green ones would eat fish, but never heard of them moving corals.

 

[Fishinwall]

Moved and ate the Xenia

 

[Fishinwall]

I didn’t know they could eat fish

 

[rhdoug]

Yeah those green ones are beasts! Many years ago I had a large one that would come out when he smelled food, and he would take chunks of krill from my hand. He also took down his share of fish. They sort of coil themselves up to make a trap, and if a fish swims in they snap down in a flash. At least that's what mine did.

 

[User1]

Yeah those green ones are beasts! Many years ago I had a large one that would come out when he smelled food, and he would take chunks of krill from my hand. He also took down his share of fish. They sort of coil themselves up to make a trap, and if a fish swims in they snap down in a flash. At least that's what mine did.

This is exactly what they do. Especially at night what they do is raise up on their arms making a tunnel if you will. The fish swims under and they wrap it up and have a meal. They will do it in an area of passage. Usually fish but years ago when I had one it also took snails and shrimp. Green brittle star - this may help: http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/giant-green-brittle-stars-of-death-when.html

Easy to remove and re-home or move to refugium if you have one. Put a piece of shrimp out of the way area so it has to come get it and just net it out. Easy.

 

[sfin52]

The first lfs i went to to bug stuff for my tank had one that was just returned for the second time. It ate a $200 fish.

 

[naterealbig]

My brother has had a Green Serpent Star in his 120 for over 10 years. It's is 11" in diameter, and has eaten $0 worth of fish in captivity. While it looks vicious, this animal is definitely to slow and clumsy to catch a fish.

 

[Timfish]

I've got one well over 20 years old and haven't had problems with it even with small slow fish like mandarins. Can they catch fish? Sure but from what I've seen the fish most likely has a problem or there's other variables and the star is just doing it's job as a scavenger. Green Brittle Stars are not that fast and a healthy fish will easily out swim it like the Flame Hawk in this tank at feeding time.

 

[User1]

Could be a couple of you are lucky, could be that you have something different, but be that has it may they are predators and capture fish not by chasing but by creating a fake crevice and/or cave for fish to sleep or take refuge in "at night". Then they fold or collapse and that is it. It isn't about sick or otherwise unhealthy fish.

There are plenty of other serpent stars that that will fulfill the same role and not be as an aggressive predator or large in size. But if you own one and have had success great.

 

[rhdoug]

Could be a couple of you are lucky, could be that you have something different, but be that has it may they are predators and capture fish not by chasing but by creating a fake crevice and/or cave for fish to sleep or take refuge in "at night". Then they fold or collapse and that is it. It isn't about sick or otherwise unhealthy fish.

There are plenty of other serpent stars that that will fulfill the same role and not be as an aggressive predator or large in size. But if you own one and have had success great.

Agree 100%. They are fully capable of a really fast "snap-like" motion when collapsing their tentacle trap. Don't get me wrong, they are really cool and I like them, but they can and do trap and eat healthy fish - I have seen it in my tank. The descriptions above of their hunting methods are spot-on. At the same time I believe that certain individual stars do not often or ever employ this technique, but after keeping 2 I won't put them in my tank again. This is the first time I have heard of them eating corals.

 

[JP Reef]

I have a red brittle that I believe did the same thing. I noticed any small fish that I placed in my tank would disappear over time. I removed the red brittle and I have had no further losses. I put him in a small tank by itself as I do think they are cool.

 

[mort]

I have 2 of these that live in my refugium and they are around 2ft across. Post 20 https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/show-me-your-starfish.531345/#post-5517436 I certainly wouldn't trust them with fish no matter how much I fed them (they take a whole shrimp a couple of times a week.
Coral wise I haven't come across them eating them but I wouldn't rule it out. I would say that many brittlestars drag rocks to block up caves or build dens (sounds like I'm giving them more intelligence than they should have but I've seen it so many times that I know it's true).

 

[Fishinwall]

Wonder if he ate my Maxima clam?

 

[Fishinwall]

So I will need some advice on how to get him out of my display and back into my sump. I tired with a piece of shrimp wafer but he kept one leg anchored to the rock.