Ophiocoma spp. serpent star and peppermint shrimp Qs

[Floridaboy704]

Today the owner of the LFS was catching my new 6 line, when my mom spotted something that she just had to have for my tank. She wouldnt let me come near till it was bagged. My 14 year old nephew was with us and all i heard was Nanny!!! (what he calls my mom) We have to name him Earl! I was like *** are you naming Earl??? I look in the bag and she has a serpent star!! He looked big but I shrugged it off and was just happy about my wrasse. I know that serpents can be predatory. Well after drip acclimating him for a good while, I opened the bag and let him out. HOLY ST MARY OF MUNKY A$$ES!!!!! When he streched out, he had to be 7 inches from tip to tip!!!! I yelled at my mom and said Mom!!!!! Look how big this thing is!!!! She didnt even realise he was that large. In the back of my mind I thought oh great, there go my pepps!! Well, I grabbed my book (Marine Invertebrates by Ronald L. Shimek) and looked it up. Turns out that its a spiny black brittle star, Ophiocoma spp. I read all about him and it turns out they are reef safe. I breathed a sigh of relief, but decided to keep and eye (and my flashlight) on him tonight to see how things go. Hes absolutely gorgeous with his spines and black body. The tips of his arms are blood red. Hes wicked looking and a beautiful guy. Well, just a few min ago I decided to do a tank check with the trusty flashlight and I almost needed a xanax too!! I seen a pepp in his arms and he was looking happy!! Well I searched for a min with my flashlight and found both shrimp accounted for. Turns out he was eating a molt from one of the pepps. For the last couple of hours the serpent and the pepps have been staying in the same area with no problems. I did decide to go back to the LFS tomorrow and get some freeze dried krill to keep him fat and sassy and not snacking on my pepps.

Now having said that, both of my pepps had eggs. I only bought them 4 days ago. I have no clue how long they had the eggs before I bought them obviously. Now I seen the serpent eating the molt, that means either the mom released the eggs due to the stress of being moved to my tank, or they hatched. If by some chance they did hatch, what are the chances of survival?? I have them in my Aquapod 24, but seeing that I have a clown and now a six line wrasse, chances of survival seem pretty slim. On the other hand, I do have many kinds of pods in my tank that havent fallen prey to anything yet, but the six line was just bought today. Any advice??

Also how many of you have serpent stars in your reefs and how do you feed them. Im particularly interested with those of the same species as mine. My micro serpents have been flourishing, but I have never owned a big poppa like this before.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Your peppermint babies will not survive after hatching unless you have an appropriate rearing tank, and even then it is rather difficult.

The problem with large brittle stars, and just about any star for that matter, is feeding. Brittle stars eat micro fauna from the sand and rocks, and they eat a LOT of it. A brittle star the size you're describing will clear through its potential food supply in a 24 gallon tank really quick. Now, it will probably subsist on food you deliberately feed it. It will eat just about any meaty food it can wrap its legs around. However, it is causing damage to your reef tank by devouring all the little critters we tend to take for granted. Basically, it belongs in a much much larger tank. Oh, and if it gets hungry enough and sees an opportunity, it will eat your fish and/or peppermints.