How often do I feed my serpent star?

[yeldarbj]

I have a sepent star that is not much of a scavenger at all. I had read that they can be a great addition to a cleanup crew, well this one is not. It never scavenges, it only wants chunks of squid (and anything attached to the piece of squid that won't let go). In fact, everytime I feed, I fear for the lives of the rest of my cleaners (snails, peppermint shrimp, mithrax crabs, scarlet hermits) as the starfish comes out looking for pieces to grab.

I've been feeding it squid about every 3 days. Is this about right? It always seems hungry for more and comes out in the off days only at fish feeding time.

If I feed it squid less often, will it actually try to scavenge more or will it just start eating my other cleaners?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[FireEater]

I only feed my stars maybe once every 2 weeks. If you slow way down on the feeding it will scavenge left over food.

The serpent might look aggressive while you feed the tank, but it cares about nothing but the food.

As you can see in the pic, they are all living together in the cave. Peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, camel backs, a bar gobie with a tiger tail cuke behinds its head and a flame scallop in the back.

Look closely and you can see them all crowded in.

Mark

 

[Pseudo12]

I love that pic.....Gives me hope the new serpent star i just added to the tank can get along with everything

 

[Ryanqk]

I have two that i hardly ever feed, they take care of themselves, occasionally ill slip them a lil bit of mysis shrimp if they are out, but my big green one has had all his arms torn off somehow, i put him in a nursery to try and save him and im feeding him extra shrimp, i hope he makes it but someone roughed him up good.

 

[dendro982]

Once a day, 1/8" - 4mm piece of fish or shrimp. I know it's too much, you will see how the star's health is going and adjust the feeding accordingly.
My banded brownish serpent star shrinked in the predators tank with bad parameters, now in the reef tank with a lot of feeding it looks a lot better. It keeps end of one leg outside to watch for a food - just drop /place it near - and food will be taken in the way as elefant would take it.