Red Serpent Starfish vs Normal

[Makers Marc]

All,

Has anyone kept one of these bright red versions of the serpent star?

I've previoisly kept a normal brown/blk stripe one for 2.5 yrs until my new peppermint shrimps killed it.

My LFS says they are reef, coral, and clam safe. While i feed my 23 fish alot in my 180g...


Q: will i have to manually feed it chunks of shrimp on a routine basis? Or will it scavenge and eat detritus, etc too? Because my wrasses/flow will never let anything settle for long on the substrate.

Q: has yours ever caught and eaten one.of your tank inhabitants?

I know its not the infamous green one... but just wanna make sure it doesnt go rogue if I dont manually hand feed it constantly.

 

[James M]

@norfolkgarden
I know you have the red serpent star

 

[Makers Marc]

It surprises me that more people dont have this, if it is as innocent as normal serpent/banded sea stars considering how pretty it is .

I know yrs back i researched all reef safe sea stars, and I swear I woulda bought one by now if it truly was as innocent as im told.

 

[James M]

I think they are hard to find

 

[catfishblues]

I had one for years and it was great! It wouldn't harm a thing, cleaned all uneaten food, and knew the feeling of my hand and if I touched it would come out to eat out of my hand. Can't say whether or not it ate detritus but for me it was a almost like having a show fish rather than a clean up crew. I've had other kinds and had similar experiences and think if they're well fed they don't attack fish but I can't say for certain.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Size matters. [emoji6]

Our red one, all of our 8 serpents, have a disc size of less than a quarter, most are bigger than a nickel.

No issues whatsoever. Yet.

Lol, saw a new red serpent starfish at the LFS with a disc almost 2" across!
Had no idea they could get that big. Made me worry about mine a little bit. But not much.

Our red, pale purple and perfect dark black and bright white serpents are out more than they are hidden. I always overfeed. The serpents don't need to eat my fish.
[emoji6]

No clue how old the 2" disc red serpent starfish was. It sold last week.
Will plan on keeping an eye on ours. Hoping it will be years before I have to worry.
[emoji4]

 

[norfolkgarden]

Thank you for the heads up on the peppermint shrimp.

Had no idea they could do that.

We don't bother keeping them because we have 2 hawk fish in the tank.

The hawk fish leave the blood red fire shrimp alone and we don't want to push their ideas of what is food any further.
[emoji6]

 

[Katrina71]

My next tank will have one of these.

 

[Makers Marc]

Thank you for the heads up on the peppermint shrimp.

Had no idea they could do that.

We don't bother keeping them because we have 2 hawk fish in the tank.

The hawk fish leave the blood red fire shrimp alone and we don't want to push their ideas of what is food any further.
[emoji6]

Yeah. I no longer keep peppernint shrimp. They just get so aggressive in their picking, that they just pester things to death.

Saw them attack a longspine urchin once. and three of them took turns mounting its back and pulling spines out one at a time.

Maybe they just get aggressive when they get bigger and pick and pick..

 

[Be102]

Bump

 

[naterealbig]

I have a large one about 8" across. Lived in my brothers tank for years... had a couple fish disappear, but couldn't pin it to the starfish.... As for eating detritus - absolutely. My Brother thought his died. Found him in the overflow like 6 mo later.

mine currently resides in the sump of my growout tank. I had it in the main tank, but I'm pretty sure it was taking out some zoas. I don't is think it ate them normally, but i think the Zoas would catch food, and the starfish tried to eat the food but ended up taking the whole Zoa....

i don't have any evidence that this star is a fish eater - but i don't want to have to find out at the expense of one of my fish.... so he will stay in the sump. I break off piece of LRS every once in a whileand feed it by hand.

 

[locito277]

Got about 10 reds spread across 3 aquariums. Harmless good guys. One lives in my seahorse tank

 

[naterealbig]

Got about 10 reds spread across 3 aquariums. Harmless good guys. One lives in my seahorse tank

This is good info. How large are they?

 

[Brian1f1]

It surprises me that more people dont have this, if it is as innocent as normal serpent/banded sea stars considering how pretty it is .

I know yrs back i researched all reef safe sea stars, and I swear I woulda bought one by now if it truly was as innocent as im told.

They are uncommon in the trade now. I had one twenty years ago. They get big, super cool. Would have one again if I ever find one!

 

[AcroNem]

Ones I've seen recently have been expensive, but if you find them and want to pay it they are very cool. With specimens I've kept they've never bothered anything.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Has anyone kept one of these bright red versions of the serpent star?

Q: has yours ever caught and eaten one.of your tank inhabitants?

Wow, that's beautiful! I've had a red serpent star for at least 8 years, though not as bright as that one! More of a burgundy color. Disk is probably close to 2 inches. I tried to find him just now for a picture, but he must be hiding.

I've seen him right up against my goby/other living fish and he never bothers the fish. I do throw in a piece or 2 of thawed krill, which makes him very happy. I do this when he comes flying out from hiding at feeding time. Makes me think he's hungry! Otherwise, he just does his scavenging thing.

 

[locito277]

This is good info. How large are they?

I got some pretty big ones in the 350. I keep pipefish. Garden eels etc.

 

[motortrendz]

I have one on my tank it's about 10-12 inches across its arms and about a 1.5in center disk... he actually lives with my eel in the same cave. When I feed he comes out to get some food. I usually give him a piece of krill when I feed the eel and hell take it feed itself and go back I to the rocks. Never bothers the fish. But the fish tend to steal the food out of its arms, so I'm always trying to keep them away when it eats. I gotta get some better pics. I only took one when I first got it and was acclimating it. they're expensive compared to other stars. But they really stand out..