are brital stars bad for sps

[falcon41176]

are brital stars bad for sps or are they reef safe. and if they are safe for sps ,will they eat my fish. they brown looking . they where hitchhicker's. i think they eat detrius but not sure. and a couple of pink tipped sea urchins.

 

[fishdoc11]

Hard to tell exacly the type you are refering to but I am not aware of any brittle stars that will harm sps. Asterina's maybe....

 

[falcon41176]

will they hurt any of my fish

 

[taflaw]

Brittle stars and serpent sea stars are great for all reefs, including sps. I removed all the sea urchins from my systems because they will remove coralline algae (the purple stuff) from your system.....Healthy coralline algae in the system means your aquarium will be suitable for stony corals. You may be able to trade your urchins for credit at your LFS as well.

Brittle stars will not eat your fish, either.They are great scavengers and detritus feeders, which is very important to have for a reef environment....

 

[thebicyclecafe]

the only star I would be concerned with would be Asterina wega.

 

[MiddletonMark]

Something like a large green brittle I wouldn't add to my tank - but I have serpents and smaller brittles in my tank without issue.

In fact, I got a Montipora coral from the LFS [right off the plane] that came with a pair of coral-hitchhiker starfish ... now moved to my Seriatopora. They've lived inside the coral's branches for a year plus ... no issues to anything.
Probably the neatest hitchhiker I have, IMO.

 

[parothead22]

Brittle Sea Stars will not hurt your sps. Except for the fact that they may rub up against or lay on stonies, they don't harm them. As for the fish and Brittle compatability, The Emerald Brittle are not ot be trusted with small fish as they are piscavores, and will trap and consume small fish!