Tiger Serpent Star - friend or foe?

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SaltyTemple

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Aug 8, 2005
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Kirkland
Hey all, yet another question to the masses!

I recently aquired a tiger serpent star for my 125. I know, I probably should have done more reading on him before putting him in my tank. Chalk it up to newbie eagerness... Anyhow - he's a pretty large specimen and seems to be aclimating fine in one of my LR caves. When I feed, he sends out his tentacles catching the bits of shrimp.

I was trying to really understand if they are fish eaters since I know that other (Green in particular) serpent stars are quite carniverous. SO - has anyone else had any experiences with these guys and if so, what do you think. My main concern is that I have small gobys and jawfish in the tank...

http://species.fishindex.com/species_2777ophiolepis_superba_black_banded_serpent_star.html
 
I've had one of these for about 6 years now and has never been a concern. It shouldn't cause you any problems with fish, coral or other mobile inverts.

Cheers
Steve
 
Mine has never bothered anything either. Loves krill will eat it right out of my hand. It has proved to be very hardy also. It had a little mishap with a powerhead and is still around two year later to tell about it.
 
THANK YOU - I think he's a neat little *cough* BIG bugger. (about 10' so far) I can rest a little easier now. :)
 
Shauna... really 10', you told me that but I am sure it's 10".:rolleyes: I like my brittles also, great scavengers.
 
Shauna, I have two brittle stars in my 27 gal. hex tank. I've had them for seven of eight mos. that I have run this system. I would tend to agree with the above posts, but take note here.

One is a dark brown Brittle star ( about 12" overall ), the other is a grey banded "Brittle" at about 10". I have never seen the large "brown" guy bother anything ( other than stealing brine shrimp from the brain coral ), but, for some reason, the smaller grey fella has some different ideas about what is food.

He hides under a large rock and is excavating all the time. I have caught him attempting to rip the polyps off of Xenia, and twice I have found that small "Xenia rocks" that have fallen to the substrate have disappeared entirely within less than 10 minutes, not to be found again ( rock and all! ). :mad:

I still have both the starfish. I have quite a few stalks of Xenia, higher up in the tank that have been left undisturbed, until Saturday! One Xenia, which is closest to the starfishes rock, was severely decimated Saturday. Yesterday the grey starfish was hauling a large hunk of detritus out from under the rock! OOPS! :eek:

One more time, and Mr. starfish is going to live somewhere else. My bottom feeders don't get much to eat, so watch out for really hungry starfish!

Best of luck with yours. > Wave98 :)
 
No "story" here Shauna. Like I said, keep it fed, or keep an eye on it. I didn't have a problem for 7 mos! :p :) > Wave98
 
I have the grey banded type and and it's proven to be a great scavenger, but I had a sick watchman goby completely disappear and I think it might've been the starfish. I don't know if it died and then he ate it or he knew it was dying and ate it. My LFS said that batch of watchmans was a bad batch so I didn't mind too much because a dead fish would've polluted my 20g. He just got a 15 dollar snack :) Anyways he's proven to be extremely hardy too.
 
I thought there were issues with starfish in a home aquarium as then tend to starve to death. Which stars are suitable for aquariums? I really was hoping to get a orange or red sea star (Echunaster) but have heard too many horror stories to purchase one, I would hate to see one melt away. They add some great color to the tank and only get around 3". Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I was just curious.
 
I have a small mottled orange sea star and he's about the size of a half dollar (maybe a little larger) and he's done very well in my aquarium.
 
Hey NaH2O - thanks for the article. I appreciate the knowlege. I probably wouldn't have gotten one knowing the mere possibility of them munching on my critters, BUT I may just name him timebomb and be done with it :) he's still pretty neat. I'll take up direct feeding him to ensure his appetite is sated.
 
I also have a tiger banded star fish, and yesterday I found out it had babies. I have found 3 so far in the rockwork, all miniture copies of the 10" one (they are around 3/4" or so) and have the markings just like him (or her). Not sure how it happened since I only have one banded, have a dark serpent star and a brittle star also. Im just wondering how many are in there since I have about 250lbs of rock for them to hide in, and these are just the three I have seen on the side of the tank in the rockwork.

But as to your post, they have seemed very reef safe
 
Stlouisguy - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

4.gif


It might be the little "baby" stars you are seeing, are actually micro/mini brittle stars. They will stay on the small side, and are great hitchhikers, IMO.

an image from the coral/invert gallery
Microbrittlestar.jpg
 
Thanks for the welcome. I would have leaned that way if the markings and shape i.e. brittle or not were not identical. The stripping and the shape are exactly the same, hence I must lean toward offspring. I am going to try and get a picture tonight. Is there a way to add pictures to the posts here?
 
How To Post Photos. I hope you find the thread helpful. I haven't had any feedback saying it is confusing, so if you have trouble, send me a PM and I can help you out.
 
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