Brittle Sea Star.

[TrevorHenry]

she's a pretty thing but very dangerous to your fish!

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/giant-green-brittle-stars-of-death-when.html

Very nice article on them. I have yet to see my star be that violent or even attempt to be. She's more curious of what's around Her than eating my clowns it seems like.

 

[TrevorHenry]

Too bad you are on the other coast. I just got back from the Keys and brought home 3 stars. A black brittle start, a flesh/pink serpent star and a small star with white legs and a dark gray disk. If you were local I'd share with you. In fact I'd take your green brittle star in trade and put it in my 120g sump/refugium/DSB. If it can catch the damsels in there, more power to him!

Sounds like you need to take a road trip to Cali!

 

[Nina51]

Very nice article on them. I have yet to see my star be that violent or even attempt to be. She's more curious of what's around Her than eating my clowns it seems like.

it isn't likely that you will see the behavior during the day. they are nocturnal hunters and it would be very easy for it to snag a sleeping fish. i can lure this guy out during the day with a piece of raw shrimp. otherwise, he stays curled up in a hole in the rocks. as soon as the lights go out, he goes cruising as do my 2 serpent stars.
<a href="http://s6.photobucket.com/user/Ninapearl/media/TANK/brittle%20star_zpsxftx36fp.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/Ninapearl/TANK/brittle%20star_zpsxftx36fp.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo brittle star_zpsxftx36fp.jpg"/></a>

 

[TrevorHenry]

Honestly I've kept my eye on her for almost a full night of no light while gaming and she didn't move out. She actually moves out when I have daylight on surprisingly.

 

[rssjsb]

These guys hunt by finding a cave where fish sleep and "tenting" on the ceiling, then dropping down on the sleeping fish. So you wouldn't probably see it at all. I've also read that they get more predatory as they get bigger.

 

[Shawn O]

That star is absolutely gorgeous. It's really too bad that all the bad critters aren't butt ugly.

 

[badbreath]

I lost two clowns, a chromis, and a lawnmower blenny to one of these guys. Had to lure it out with a scallop and pull it out...it did not want to leave! Aggressive little bturd!

 

[badbreath]

I lost two clowns, a chromis, and a lawnmower blenny to one of these guys. Had to lure it out with a scallop and pull it out...it did not want to leave! Aggressive little bturd!

And a yellow watchman goby named Videncio. I loved that fish...smh

 

[TrevorHenry]

So today I added 2 peppermint shrimp and 2 emerald crabs to my tank and me and my girlfriend got to watch first hand shelly attack. She decided to stalk a crab while he was eating and it was a very interesting thing to see her slowly move over him and then bounce into a ball with him stuck in the middle. After about a minute he faught his way out and now these shrimp keep messing with her and she seems like she's getting real ****ed off at it.

 

[Calappidae]

And so the hunt begins.

 

[TrevorHenry]

Yessss. She has been in bounce position all night.

 

[kichimark]

Yup"¦.never going to put another one in my display again. Had one many moons ago and it ate my fridmani during the night.

 

[TrevorHenry]

Very unique thing to watch though.

 

[ColinAbi]

Very unique thing to watch though.

But is it worth it if it eats all of the fish?

 

[lifeoffaith]

My LFS told me about one of their customers who had one of these in his very large DT. It ended up getting around 3 feet across and started taking out his fish. He eventually tore apart the entire tank to catch the thing. Don't risk it.

 

[TrevorHenry]

Well until I can find a non predator replacement locally shell have to do.