Is a serpent star eating my fish??

[reefer1970]

Ive been losing quite a few fish largest being a 5" powder Blue tang and on another post someone suggested if I had a serpent star, it could be the reason. Mine is 4-5" and has been seen hiding under a rock lately. I didn't think they were a problem. Ive also lost 2 flame angels

 

[Jade5051]

Why do you think it's the seastar? Do the fish show signs of an attack?

Have you checked your water parameters? What are they?

 

[Toga2]

Some large stars can eat fish but they are deathly slow and they'd have a pretty hard time catching a healthy fish. You could target feed your star to keep it's belly full and help keep fish off the menu. Maybe try looking for other hitchhikers at night with a flashlight and listen for the tell tale clicking sound. The star could be hiding because it to has been attacked. Just a few things I've seen happen

 

[Betta132]

The serpent absolutely didn't eat the fish if the fish was longer than the star. Or, at least, he didn't kill the fish. They can only kill things around the side of their central disk. It's a good idea to feed them chunks of meaty stuff a couple times a week to keep them fed, but as long as it's not dark green, it's very unlikely to go after fish at all. Green brittle stars are highly predatory, but even then it's not likely to kill fish that much larger than it.

 

[reefer1970]

Thank You guys, I'm leanining towards the possibility of the perpetrator being a Xanthid crab. I saw a crab the other day I thought was an emerald crab from my original CUC. He was about an inch in diameter and very feisty. Does anyone know if this sized Xanthid would kill a sleeping medium sized fish?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Yes, it could very easily. When I caught mine it was just about an inch and a half, claw tip to claw tip and had killed three gobies.

 

[sam.basye]

I don't know about medium sized fish..
I can see it getting small gobies, but nothing any bigger than that.

 

[Fragmented 99]

Large green brittle stars can definetly take a fish from what I've read online

 

[Betta132]

I've seen green brittles trying to grab two-inch-long fish. A reasonably large and persistent one could probably nab a fish, especially if it cornered the fish in an alcove like they do.
A five-incher, though, would only threaten a tiny fish or a shrimp. They have to be the foot-wide ones to be any real threat.

 

[snorvich]

Yes, it could very easily. When I caught mine it was just about an inch and a half, claw tip to claw tip and had killed three gobies.

Yes, these are known predators.

 

[snorvich]

Large green brittle stars can definetly take a fish from what I've read online

This.