Red Serpent star advice

[rescuediver]

I have a red serpent star in my reef tank, It ate my emerald crab and its the prime suspect in the murder case of sevral red leg hermits.. The LFS told me I didnt have to worry bout feeding it. I was led to believe it was a simple scavenger. I have recently started feeding it bits of shrimp.. Should I get it outta my reef or will it be ok now that its getting fed.. I cant afford to keep giving it $10 crabs for lunch. Anybody with experience regarding these starfish please share your knowledge

 

[mhills16]

how much did the star cost? if he has eaten more money than he cost then i would definately take him out, go trade him for something else

 

[philter4]

I have several red serpent stars, they are one of my favorites, I feed mine frozen and pellet food, but they have never gone after any other tank inhabitant. I have them with fish, shrimp, hermits, octocorals, sea hares ect. They get big and I feed them daily, but they have never acted agressively to any of my other animals. Here is a photo of one of them out looking for food.

 

[pagojoe]

I had one for a while, but he was darker red than the one in Philter's photos. He was hell on crustaceans (caught and ate my Coral Banded Shrimp and several crabs while I watched him), and would eat just about whatever else he could wrap up (Bathygobius species included). I got rid of him after a few days.

Many people claim they don't have that sort of problems with the red serpent stars, so maybe I was just lucky. Or maybe mine was a different species?

Cheers,



Don

 

[philter4]

There are two possibilities, one is that animals act differently in different tanks and do things they would never do in nature. The other which is what I think is what is happening is the star isn't getting enough to eat and is attacking anything it can overpower to feed. I've seen this when newly aquired stars haven't been fed for a while at the collection sites (I used to collect for a living) but after they have been seperated to a store or a hobbyiests tank and can be given individual care they usually calm down. Though as I've stated earlier I've never seen them go after any other tank mates, but we used to feed everything daily.