Need quick brittle star help

[otrlynn]

My black brittle star seems to have lost about half of its body size over the past few months. I believe that I have also found short pieces that have broken off the ends of its legs lately. Several of the legs are about 1/2 the size they once were. I am in the process of doing a water change and for some reason the star was out on the sand. I was able to take it out of the tank and it is currently sitting in a 5 gallon bucket of old salt water. I don't know whether to put it back in the tank w/hopes of recovery, or just discard it. I don't think I'd like it to die in the tank...

The star is probably the oldest inhabitant of my tank--about six years old.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Sounds to me like it's dying a slow death. They tend to begin disintigrating when they begin dying. It's probably just old age. No way to tell how old it was when you got it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful Lynn.

 

[otrlynn]

Thanks Adrienne. I know there's probably no sure answer. I'll leave it in the bucket for a bit and see if anyone else chimes in. I agree on the age thing--and who knows what a normal life expectancy is anyway...

 

[otrlynn]

Anyone else have brittle star experience?

 

[eyesinthedrk]

Add something meaty to the bucket and see if it eats.

Once when I was re doing my old tank I had all the live stock in a ten gal with some live rock. I look over and my 2 year old is standing next to it pouring a box of mortons table salt into it. So grabbed him by the throat and shook him like a British nanny screaming "NEVER DOSE WITHOUT TESTING"... Ok so that part isn't true. Anyway, after I pull everything out and get it into buckets I find a pile of salt at the bottom with the tip of my banded serpent star's leg poking out of it. It was stiff as a board and totally un responsive. I placed him on a rock and an hour later he still hadnt moved. He ended up loosing half of two of his legs and ALL of the rest. But he was still alive. So we namend him "wonky" and made sure to feed him something meaty every time I saw him at feeding time. A year later and he had made a full recovery.

 

[Misled]

You don't say how large it was, but I agree with Adrienne. I lost one a couple years ago and it did the same thing. It was about 15 inches across.

 

[Petown Mike]

Wikipedia says "Life span - Brittle stars generally sexually mature in 2 years, become full grown in 3 to 4 years, and live up to 5 years. Euryalina, such as Gorgonocephalus, may well live much longer."

There's no citation, but it seems like a reasonable guess that it's old age, especially if you've had the thing for years and haven't made any significant changes in the last 6 months.

 

[Misled]

The large one I had was 7 years. The serpent I have now is 4 years old and about half the size as the brittle was. We had a discussion when the brittle died and the conclusion was old age, but in a tank, they could live twice that.

 

[otrlynn]

Well, at the largest point, the star was about 16" across and the body was slightly smaller than a quarter. The body is now less than nickel size and the longest leg is about 7", but the others are 4-5". It still has all five legs and the body does not seem to be damaged. I ended up deciding to give it a chance in the tank again. Because the water in the bucket had cooled relative to the tank temp. (the room was probably 75 degrees and the tank temp. is 80), I put the star in one of those hang-on acrylic specimen containers and hung it inside the tank to acclimate it back to the higher temp. I wondered if it would respond to food and I put some chopped thawed mixed food in the container, and it did seem to have a feeding response. I have never intentionally fed it before, but I will see if I can target feed it a bit when I feed the tank. Often, I'm not sure where it is. If it seems to start looking worse, I'll try to get it out of the tank.