Hi, could use some help & advise.

[Karl S.]

Hello everyone,

about 8 months ago I decided to take the plunge into saltwater. I have a 90g reef, housing the following : 2 azure damsels, 1 sleeper gold goby, 1 purple dottyback, 1 coral beauty, 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 green clown goby, 3 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimps, 1 arrow crab, two lettuce slugs, snails and hermit crabs and a long tentacled anemone.

I am going the soft coral route, as of now I have a GSP, tree coral, waving hand polyps, button polyps, and trying to get two single mushrooms to spread, also one bubble coral which I am thinking about swapping for a leather coral.

Now comes the real reason for my post, I also have what I think might be a supposed bad reef mate, and what I think might be something I saw in Honduras called a fireworm. The suposed bad reef mate is what I think is called a green serpent star, although he looks grey to me. My star has almost doubled in size since I got him; aprox 10". He doesn't seem to bother anyone although something cut A piece off one of his arms a few weeks ago (I think my large hermit crab). I feed him chunks of shrimp 1-2 times a week when I feed my anemone, he's pretty amazing to watch; my concern is apparently these guys will kill fish, should I worry, or should it be ok as long as I keep it well fed? My next concern is the fireworm looking guy, should I leave it? I'm not a fan of blindly killing creatures I did not intend for my aquariums, I usually think to myself "yippee, freebie!".. However, I do know that some freebies aren't cause for celebration.. I.e my recent war with aiptasias... Any thoughts, comments or suggestions?

 

[Karl S.]

Here is apicture of the worm.

 

[fishhuman]

Check and make sure that your starfish is actually a serpent starfish, they will have smooth legs and you can check online for a picture. If it is a serpent starfish then it should be safe to keep, I have never heard of a serpent star eating a fish, no matter what color the starfish is. If it has bristled legs then it is a bristlestar( look up online for a reference picture) green bristle starfish have been known to actively hunt and kill fish. If it turns out to be a green bristlestar then I would suggest you remove it as soon as possible, this does not mean you have to kill it. You can give it back to a petstore( most stores that have saltwater will gladly take free critters) they may even give you store credit or a coral frag in return. What ever you do NEVER EVER A CREATURE FROM YOUR AQUARIUM INTO THE WILD, this can ruin reef ecosystems. What you saw on the rock is most likely a fire worm or bristle worm, they are very common in aquariums because they come with the live rock. They are very useful clean up members of the tank and should not bother your fish( although sometimes if a fish tries to eat it they will get bristled in their face, this should not hurt them very much). If you start noticing a large amount of bristle worms on the rocks you may be overfeeding the tank. Good luck

 

[Karl S.]

It's definitly a brittle. He looks grey, however the pictures I see online say he's a green brittle star. I really like this guy though, he reminds me of an octopus when fed.

 

[Sk8r]

hermodice carunculata. Fireworm. This.

The other guys are good guys---bristleworms.