Green brittle star...is it dead? 02/02/2008
I have a had green brittle star for about a week. The middle is the size of a quarter. LFS said it would be a good bottom cleaner. Parameters ok, temp 78. It ate a piece of shrimp from my hand last night. After it ate the shrimp it crawled on top on of a boat decoration and today when I went to check my parameters I bumped the boat and the star fell off in the same position that it was in on the boat. It is rather stiff. I
placed it on my live rock as that is where it has preferred to hide. I am watching for movement but I am seeing none. It has never really
moved much that I have seen but I do not think that it should be stiff like this should it? Any help would be great. Thanks.
<<For all intents and purposes, I would class this as dead.. Yes, they are not a big mover in the aquarium, however, being knocked of a perch like that, I would certainly expect a reaction from it. Sorry confirm your thoughts.>>
Jessica
<<Thanks for the question. A Nixon>>

Question: Brittle Star Fish Injured   12/5/07
This morning I discovered that my Brittle Starfish had a chunk of his main body (top) missing exposing a red interior.
<Bad....>
He currently is still moving and hiding in a rock. I'm trying to figure out if I have another tankmate that may have attacked the starfish. We have another brittle starfish, red general starfish, chocolate chip starfish,
<The CCS is the best candidate here>
black sea cucumber, pencil sea urchin, spiny sea urchin, (3) pajama Cardinalfish, (1) yellow tang, (2) yellowtail blue damsels, and (3) hermit crabs. Is it possible that one of the hermit crabs harmed the starfish?
<Yes>
Will the starfish be able to survive with this injury or should be remove from the tank?
<If you have a sump attached to this system, it would be best to move it there... Otherwise, only a move to a stable, established system is advised. Bob Fenner>
Please help...Thanks

Brittle Starfish... Armless  10/29/07
<Greetings Mich here.>
I have had a brittle star fish in our 55-gallon tank for about 6 months. One day I looked in our tank and saw that all of the tentacles on the starfish were gone.
<Does that make it a brittle circle fish?>
( I think some of our fish ate them off). I thought that the starfish was dead. However, I noticed this morning that it was still alive.
<Looking for the Holy Grail? ...I'm not dead yet!>
Will my starfish survive without his tentacles and how do I feed him?
<Brittle stars ingest and expel food though the central disk so it is possible for this star to survive and regenerate arms if it can get food and not sustain any further damage. I would move to a hospital tank. Is this star capable of any locomotion? If not, my best suggestion is to place the star on top of the food and remove the star from any food that remains after a period of time, perhaps around an hour. I wish you luck my friend. Mich>

Re: Brittle Starfish... Armless 10/30/07
Thank You
<Welcome!>
Yes this star can still move around,
<Locomotion increases the chance of this creature's survival.>
and I have placed it on one of my rocks, and it has been moving around it.
<I think I would keep it low, on or near the sand bed.>
I am hopeful that it will survive.
<Me too! Mich>

Serpent Seastar is turning white! 10/16/07
Hi WWM,
<Tuggs>
So we are having some freak outs with our tank right now. Nothing seems to be going right. Our Marble Starfish is on its death bed I haven't had the heart to look at her. We were going to move her to my brother in laws tank to see if it would help her survive but all that is left are three little stubs. We have accepted that she will soon be gone, even though she is fighting so hard to keep going. When we came home this evening our Valentini Puffer was missing! (You helped us floss his teeth over the summer.) My fiancé found him on the floor, he jumped out =(. (We still don't know how because our water level isn't that high.)
<Amazing for such a roundish animal...>
Our concern right now is on our Red Serpent Star or Monster (he is huge!) as we call him. When we got him about 7 months ago he was a beautiful bright red color. As he grew his disc began to lose color. And now he is almost all white! I read another post similar but their serpent start had fluffy/fuzzy white stuff. Ours isn't like that. It's just fading away! What is going on?
<Perhaps something amiss water quality and/or nutrition-wise>
All the tests came out normal. Our pH was down to 7.8
<... not good>
when the Marble Starfish lost her first arm but we immediately treated it and it is back at 8.3. Any idea what is going on and how we can fix it? And if there is nothing we can do we are ready to accept that as well.
Thank you for all the hard work you put in and all the helpful advice.
The Tugg Family
<Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/britstardisfaq2.htm
and the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

Brittle Star... hlth., no useful info. or reading   9//15/07
Hello,
<Hi there>
I have had my green brittle star for about 1 1/2yrs and I just noticed he has this white film covering his disc. What is this? Is he dying? What can I do to help? Any advice will be helpful!
Thanks!
Gilma
<... might be "nothing"... could be physical... precipitation... sort of like "scale" on a swimming pool or spa... No info. re your water quality tests, feeding, tankmates... Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/brittlestars.htm
the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

Auto-Legless brittle stars    7/16/07
Hello,
I recently bought 15 blunt-spined brittle stars from an aquarium.
<Are we talking about Ophiocoma echinata? Where did you get them?>
I've had them for five days. They have been doing well the first day except for three of the brittle stars. After the weekend, I came over to check on them and half of the brittle stars were severely damaged.
<Do you mean half of all of them or half of the ones that weren't doing well?>
They autotomized all their arms and only their central discs remain.
<Yikes! Are you sure they autotomized? Is it at all possible that they just died and then got torn apart after they were dead? Are any of the legs still moving?>
In the tanks, I can see trails of bits and pieces of their arms everywhere on the sand.
<These stars can autotomizes at any segment but I've never heard of them autotomizing at so many segments all at once though. That is quite dreadful.>
It is quite sad. I don't understand why these brittle stars are behaving so strangely. I feed them daily and check the salinity of the water twice a week. I also do some chemical water tests.
<How big is the tank? What are you using as a filter? What are your salinity, temp, etc? Is there anything else in the tank? Which tests did you do? Sorry for all the questions, but it's difficult to say what might be happening without knowing a lot more about the system.>
The self-mutilated brittle stars have a clear membrane-like substance surrounding their central discs. Are they dead or will they still regenerate?
<Theoretically, the disks can regenerate legs if the stars are still alive. However, I don't know if they could survive with no legs at all. Regeneration requires a lot of energy (more energy than just normal growth). And I don't even know how they'd be able to move without any legs.>
Why are these brittle stars behaving this way?
<I have a few suspicions, but I would have to know more about your tank. If you added all these stars at once to a relatively small, new tank, you could have ammonia in the water. If it's just 3 of the stars dying this way, and it's a small tank, it might be that the other stars are attacking those 3 for some reason. And again, is it possible they just died and fell apart?>
By the way, I am using these brittle stars in an experiment but haven't done quite anything to stress them because I was afraid they would die.
<Yes, something is really wrong. The only thing I can think of that would cause a brittle star completely autotomize like that would have to be a serious toxin or a massive attack by other animals. What kind of water are you using? Is there any way copper could have gotten into the tank?>
Thank you very much,
<No problem. But I do hope you write back with more information so we might be able to help you more.
Best,
Sara M.>
Lea

Re: Auto-Legless brittle stars    7/17/07
Hello again,
Thank you so much for replying quickly. I assumed the brittle stars that I bought were Ophiocoma echinata because they look similar to the pictures online. The store that I bought it from didn't know what the species name was, but they said they got it from the Atlantic. I attached some pictures of these brittle stars for you. I hope you can identify them better than me.
<For some reason the pictures didn't come through with this email. Huh.>
I'm sorry that I didn't explain in detail what had happened earlier. Seven out of 18 brittle stars basically self-mutilated themselves. Three of them started autotomizing the first day that I got them. The other four probably were damaged over the weekend. When the brittle stars autotomized their arms, they autotomized it by segments. However, some of them cast off almost their entire arm, which surprised me very much. The longer autotomized arms moved for a short amount of time, but the small segmented autotomized arm did not move. I also attached a picture of this incident.
<Ok, I'm just wondering if this is true autotomization or if the legs might be necrotizing. Usually, autotomized legs move (wiggle around) for a long time after they're detached.>
The tank that I have is 15 feet tall.
<Seriously?! Did you mean 15 inches or 1.5 feet maybe?>
I have 14 tanks that are all connected together (a closed circuit water system. There are seven on top and seven on the bottom. I keep my brittle stars on the bottom. In the tanks, I have a thin layer of sand. I did a water test today. I am using salt water. I use deionized water and mix ocean salt with it. I don't think any copper went in the tanks. Here are my results:
salinity - 1.021
pH - 8.2-8.4
nitrate - 0
nitrite - 0
calcium - 17 drops
ammonia - 0.5 (probably because of the dead brittle star bodies)
<Hmm...I suspect this might be the problem.>
temp- room temperature
When I first got the 15 brittle stars, I put them in one tank. The next morning, I saw pieces of the arms in the sand so I separated the brittle stars to prevent them from hurting each other. I don't know if I made it worse. Do brittle stars survive better if they are together in a group? If so, why do they?
<Separating them was a good idea.>
Thank you so much for answering my questions. You have helped me a lot. I apologize for not introducing myself properly. I am a senior in high school and am currently doing research on these brittle stars. I am very interested in the relationship between regeneration and autotomy in these brittle stars. Their behavior is sometimes unpredictable though.
<Nice to meet you. :) Do you know how to use Google scholar? If you're up for a challenge, there are quite a few hard core research papers on autotomy and regeneration in starfish.>
I am trying to quantify their behavior but I don't know the best way to go about it. Brittle stars are known for their fast movement compared to other echinoderms. However, I don't know how to equally quantify their locomotion. They aren't like mice in a maze. They go in unpredictable pathways (ie. up the side of the tank, in a corner, etc)
<Well, this might be tricky. I know of one way you could do it theoretically, but it would be way too much work and expense for one person. But um, there might be another way too. They might not go through a maze, but they can sniff out food. You might be able to race them in a big enough tank if you starved them for a few days and watched to see which star got to the food first. But that would only be a relative measurement, and a rather crude one at that. Honestly, I don't know of any practical way it could be done properly. It is an interesting question though.>
I also have trouble quantify how much they eat. I feed them flakes and fish pellets, but so far they haven't been eating them very much. What type of food do they most enjoy? I'm sorry for asking you many questions. I try to look up things online, but haven't found very useful information.
<You're not alone. This is one reason it's difficult to do experiments with animals in aquariums. All you can really do is make sure you feed each star fish the same amount. Granted, some will eat more than others, but there's not much you can do about that. You have to think about what you can and can't measure. You can measure their weight, their size, and maybe their color to some extent...>
I thought it would be a better idea to ask a researcher instead. What type of research have you done with brittle stars? They truly are interesting creatures :)
<Yes, you should definitely ask a researcher if you know one to ask. At the very least, a researcher should be able to help you design the experiment. I haven't done any research with brittle stars. I have done research with piglets and rats. It's a little easier with terrestrial animals, but not much.
Good Luck :-),
Sara>
Best regards,
Lea

Dipping Stars   7/16/07
Hi crew, first time question. Tomorrow I will add a Ruby Brittlestar to my tank. Bob Fenner's book tells me to use a freshwater dip with Meth Blue.
<Mmm, no... no FW dips for invertebrates by and large... only fishes>
Should I acclimate my star firstly to my system water, then the dip, or should I dip right out of the bag?
Thanks,
Ray C.
<Please read here re acclimation of echinoderms: http://wetwebmedia.com/marind5_5.htm
Scroll down... and here:
http://wetwebmedia.com/acclimat.htm
should be dripped... Bob Fenner>

Brittle star fish   4/19/07
Hey guys,
<Hey Carrie>
I upgraded my coral tank the other day, removing all coral and putting it in a larger tank.  I took all the rock and put it in buckets for the move into the other room.  My brittle star fish was hiding in one of these rocks. Therefore he was exposed to air TWICE during the move.  Is he doomed?
<Not necessarily.  While exposure to air is not good for them, being in the wet rock the whole time would help somewhat, and what is more important is that the pH and salinity of the two tanks were similar.  The shock of different water chemistry would have more impact than a few minutes exposed to air inside a rock.>
He's been hiding since the whole incident, I can see his arms under a big rock just as normal and they seem intact but I can't see the rest of his body.
<If the arms are moving normally, pulling in food, coming out more in the dark, he is probably fine.  If they are not moving, you have a problem, and should try to remove him (which probably means move the whole rock to a small tank for observation.  If he is moving his arms and just being shy while he adjusts to the new surroundings, patience…>
Should I be really worried about him?
<Not if he is moving and eating.  I brought home a new piece of live rock from the LFS the other day, in a Styrofoam box out of water for almost 2 hours before I got it into quarantine.  I didn’t have a sample of the LFS water, but suspect my salinity is much higher based on previous fish acclimation.  So dumped the live rock in the QT, and voila a few days later discovered a perfectly healthy brittle star living in it! You should be fine!>
Thanks so much,
Carrie
<You are welcome. Alex>

Starfish... Ophiuroid... hlth.   4/17/04
<Hello Jared, Mich with you again.>
How's it going?
<Fine, yourself?>
I have a 75 gal. FOWLR. A bought a brittle starfish 5 days ago and now he is looking really, really bad.
<I'm sorry to hear this.>  
All my water parameters are good. Temp 80, 1.021, pH 8.2, everything else is zero.  I had the water checked by my LFS the day I bought it and they said everything was good.  I also bought 3 turbo snails at the same time that are doing great so far. I did a drip acclimation for 1 1/2 hours. The starfish's disk is all split open and my two cleaner shrimp are constantly picking at it.
<Likely removing necrotic tissue.> <<This Brittlestar is gone... RMF>>
I know my LFS had just gotten the starfish in the day before so hopefully they will take it back. If not, is all hope lost?
<I wouldn't say lost, but it is certainly not looking good.  I would keep a very close eye it.  Remove it if it is no longer moving>  
Thanks for your help.
<Welcome!  -Mich>
-Jared

Hole in brittle-star...more info please?   4/1/07
Hello!
<Hi.>
I looked under brittle stars and couldn't find any info on this, but I have had a black brittle starfish for well over a year now and he has always looked a little scarred.
<?>
For a long time I had not seen his oral disc, but just his legs.
<They are rather reclusive.>
Tonight, he came out under the dimmer lighting and he has a hole in him.  This brittle star is fairly large, but this hole in him is huge!  I can easily see through it and can even see his mouth moving.  I am worried about this star.  Is there anything I can do?  Will this affect my red brittle star or my orange Linckia?
<Hmm...are there any other denizens in the tank that could be possible predators on this animal. Furthermore what is the water chemistry like and how are you ensuring it get's food? As far as affecting the other Star's if it's a water quality or predator relation issue...then it's a possibility but I can't tell that based on the info provided.>
Is there a disease that may affect my corals?  
<Well I can't say for sure what it is from what you have told me.>
Does this come about with certain water conditions?
<High nutrient levels, improper diet....yes.>
I don't have any real aggressive fish that could've done this to him.
<Large invertebrates/crustaceans?>
I look forward to hearing from you.
-Allen
<Adam J.>
 

Brittlestar looking odd  3/23/07 Hey Crew, <Hello Marshall.  Brandon here tonight.> I have a brittlestar, specifically the Ophioderma ensiferum.   <Interesting creatures.> This morning I observed that his central disc was misshapen, enlarged, and had a couple of protruding bumps.  My first thought was that he had consumed something relatively large, but all the inhabitants of the tank are present with the exception of the peppermint shrimp which I didn't see, though he could easily have simply been somewhere unobservable.    <Possibly.  I don’t think that the Star would have eaten it, but then again.  Stranger things have happened.> Assuming he hasn't eaten the peppermint shrimp, are there any other explanations for his appearance other than he consumed something?   <Could be developing gonads, could be a tumor, could just be moving things around internally.  It could have eaten something else that you didn’t realize was there.> Would he possibly swallow something other than an organism, i.e. a rock or a shell?   <Not likely.  These creatures are pretty “intelligent” about what they eat.  They have chemoreceptors about their body that tells them what is food/friend/foe etc.> I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, but you can see the bumps, and his disc has roughly twice as thick as it otherwise is normally. <I would just keep an eye on it, and watch for improvement.> Thanks for the help you guys. <You are welcome.  Brandon.>

Serpent Star in Poor Health 2/16/07
Hi, I need help! <Hi> I have a 40 gallon tank which, (until a week ago) had 3 damsels, a clown fish, a chocolate chip star and a serpent star. The serpent star fish I've only had for about 2 weeks. After getting him, and before adding him to the tank, I checked the water and saw the nitrites/ammonia were a little high.  <Not good, usually a sign of more problems.> I added something called "ammonia clear" to the water. I was told it was safe while the fish were in the tank, also that 2 times the dose was okay if the ammonia was really high. I added 3 tablets (a little less than the normal dose). I acclimated the star fish over 4 hours then added him to the tank. <Never a good idea add anything to the tank when the water chemistry is not right.>  Two days later I woke up to EVERYTHING (but the serpent star) DEAD! I was told he wouldn't hurt anything, and reassured the ammonia clear was safe. (I'm convinced it wasn't).  <More likely the deaths were a result of whatever was causing the poor water quality.> Today I woke up to what I believe is a dying serpent star. He is missing 2 legs (detached perfectly from his body). Also, he is getting this white "slime"(?) from under his body. Oddly enough he's moving just fine, and is still active. Is there ANYTHING at this point I can do to save my tank, without emptying the whole thing and starting over? <Yes, improve water quality, the symptoms you are seeing are normally caused by ammonia.> I'm waiting to add anymore fish, mainly because I'm afraid of killing them. <No more fish until you get this straightened out.> Please Help! Thank you, Casie.
<Chris>

Re: Serpent Star in Poor Health Part II 2/16/07
Thank you. The starfish didn't make it even another hour after I wrote you. <Sorry to hear.>  I just find it odd how everyone was fine that night, and the next morning upside down. I changed out 10 gallons of water. Everything is checking out fine except the nitrites. <At night the Oxygen level falls naturally, along with pH.  The nitrite and ammonia increase the effects of these changes on the fish.  Basically the fish were most likely unable to remove adequate O2 from the water and suffocated.>  Any advise as to how I could lower them? <Need more biological filtration, lower bioload, and/or less food.>  The tank is empty now so I guess now would be a good time to add chemicals if I had to.  <Would not, just let it run and recycle itself.> I'm not using ammonia clear anymore. <Really should never need it as long as the tank has adequate filtration.>  Even if it was just a fluke. I've never had any problem with my tanks before. Thank you again!
<Good luck in the future.>
<Chris>

Is my brittle star dead?  Concerning behavior.   2/3/07
Guys, your site is excellent congratulations.
<Hola Reynaldo!  Muchos gracias!>
I'm rather new to salt water aquariums but have a lot of experience on freshwater ones.
<Muy bien!>
However it has not been easy.
<Si.  Often challenging.>
I like others, have started with a small 20 gallon tank, and have two damselfish: a blue and a three
stripe. However in my local aquarium, down in Mexico, I bought a brittle star (dark brown) which I thought of to be cool. I was told it would eat detritus and that's it.
<Will eat detritus and other meaty foods if offered.>
Just a couple of days after, I noticed it to be 'stiff'. Then turned it on its belly.
<I think you means it's back, correct?>
It did not try to turn around but slowly started to flatten down. the mini-tentacles under the tentacles themselves are moving, but I had to turn the star around again to its upright position. No arms have fallen and no decomposition seems to be taking place.
<This is very good.>
Does this stiffness indicate imminent death?
<No, but I would watch carefully.  His behavior is concerning.  Usually brittle stars and other Ophiuroids will upright themselves relatively quickly.>
Thank you in advance!!
<De nada mi amigo!>
Reynaldo Suazo
Toluca, Mexico
<Salude!  -Mich>