Black Brittelstar good/bad?

[Cope]

Hi folks
I bought some new shrooms and some green star polyps, on one of the shroom rocks was a large black/ purple brittle star around 5". I was just looking to do some research on the thing and I cant find the black ones, just the banded and fancy ones? I knew I shoulda took some picks, but know he's in my tank. Is this thing reef safe? Also when looking at the other brittle stars info it says not to expose them to air? uh well I did that before I could get it off the rock. I drip acclimatised it for around two and a half hours last night, now it's hiding some where? I reed there nocturnal, so no biggie. The real questions are how sensitive are these things?
Did I screw it up by taking it out of the watter?
Is this guy gonna destroy my tank?
Thanks
Cope
Any thing else I should know about these things?

Side note do I need to feed the star polyps? or are they good with just light?

 

[Cope]

bump?
Should I have posted this in the reef section?
Seemed like a noob question to me?

 

[macronut]

Your brittle star should be fine, a short exposure to the air should not have hurt him, however, I don't like to remove livestock out of the water unless absolutely necessary. As for reef safe you should have no problems. The green brittles are the ones that are more prone to attack smaller fish. I had a green brittle for many years that I fed raw popcorn shrimp from the grocery seafood section (no precooked or bagged, kind on ice) to keep him fat and full. Your black/brown brittle should be fine. Look for him at night with a dim flashlight, I'm sure he doing just fine. Brittles and serpent stars like to hide under and in rock work so provide plenty of places to hide. They do not like bright light. Good luck.

 

[macronut]

Your star polyps will be fine if you have adequate lighting over your tank to house corals. PC's, T5's, vho's or halide are adequate. Regular lighting for freshwater will not be adequate. Star polyps can multiply fast so my suggest would be to place these in your tank where you can control them. Possibly on a rock that doesn't touch any other rock.

 

[Cope]

LOL I almost dropped the rock and all on the floor! This thing scared the heck out of me! As it was I was trying to get the thing in a container and knocked the fat shroom rock in the tank! No acclimatising for that one! The shrooms look good, better than the one that did get acclimatised?
Who knows?
Thanks I'll look for em to night maby?
Thanks
Cope

 

[otrlynn]

I have had a black brittle star for about 18 months. No problems--a valuable member of the clean up crew. If you feed something smelly like frozen brine shrimp, you wil often see a leg come snaking out from under the rockwork, even in the daytime