ID My brittle star

[Vitae]

Not sure what kind of brittle start this guy is, is it a green brittle or something else?

 

[philter4]

It looks to be Ophioderma appressum, though it is almost impossible to tell without taking the star apart, which isn't condusive to keeping it alive. It would help is you knew where it was collective. O.appressum is one of the most common and variable serpent star from the atlantic, it is the same species as the army man star, also known as the harlequin star. It can be any color from green and yellow to red and orange, yellow and black, or just grey with darker bars in the arms. They are great, reef safe, stars that will scavange in your reef, but it needs to be fed as well. They eat anything, including frozen and dried, just make sure some of the food gets down to the bottom. they wont bother healthy fish or other inverts, but they may eat something that has died. They need nothing special to thrive in your tank, just a place to hide and some food.

If it is a pacific star, then I'm not sure what it could be, there are so many that without better photos and details of the arms and feet or taking it apart to look at the teeth structure and internal organs you will be lucky to find the genus. The one good thing is there are very few bad serpent stars, and it doesn't look like one of the bad ones. by the way, serpent and brittle stars are the same, the name serpent is usually used on smooth legged ones and brittle for the "furry" legged ones.

 

[Vitae]

I've been feeding him (and other guys) some frozen brine shrimp and he's been eating it like mad. I love watching him get a piece of it in his arm and curl it under to his mouth.. so entertaining

I'm not so much worried about the exact species, just more or less "will he kill everything in my tank including corals?"