Brittle Star hole in head

[40gal]

So I noticed my brittle star out during the day today which is a little strange. Noticed there is a large hole in the top of its center. Still moving around, but never seen anything like this. Any ideas?

Sorry for the bad pic.

 

[Calappidae]

I recall a thread not too long ago reporting the same thing. His recovered after being moved in a seperate quarentine by itself.

 

[40gal]

I searched but couldn't find anything. It's really crazy that you can see inside of it and it's just moving around like everything's good.

 

[Calappidae]

I think this might be it:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2379068

How long have you had him?

 

[40gal]

About 8 mos or so now. Actually have two in the tank.

 

[40gal]

So I think I lost him, just in the couple hours since posting. I see a couple little pieces of tentacles in the back corner of the tank where he was. Not sure where the rest of him is. On the bright side, the other one is looking normal and moving around well.

Since there's no sign of him, I'm going to keep an eye on water parameters over the next couple days and hope for the best.

 

[40gal]

Still haven't seen this guy out since this happened. Has a small ammonia spike a day or two later (measured sub .25 ppm), but since then it has returned to 0 on it's own. All levels look normal again. I would have expected a higher spike in levels, so either he is regenerating and in hiding, or he's a goner. Haven't seen any more evidence of death, and my other star seems to be doing just fine.