Brittle starfish killing fish

[Jacobyang]

Is there any chance my serpant starfish killed my damsel and should I let it eat the dead body???

 

[W1ngz]

The fish died, the starfish is just cleaning up the mess. Remove the fish before it rots and messes up the water. Your tank doesn't look mature enough to handle a dead fish without a serious ammonia spike.

It's hard to kill a damsel, I'd be suspicious of water quality, ammonia levels or diseases.

 

[Jacobyang]

everything is fine, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are all 0. I dont know what is wrong, everything else seems to be doing well, and my tank is around 4 month old.

 

[Natescorals]

Could be temperature, could be salinity, could be a number of different things

 

[vetteguy53081]

Star is being a scavenger and typically a hunter

 

[Macdaddynick1]

100% possible. Serpent stars kill fish if they can catch them. Especially as small as damsels. Happened to my clown. :/ but it does depend on the star, and the side of it.

 

[Mical]

everything is fine, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are all 0. I dont know what is wrong, everything else seems to be doing well, and my tank is around 4 month old.

I bet not. Damsels can easily outrun a starfish. As others mentioned something else killed your damsel and starfish is cleaning up the debris. Damsels are pretty hardy and can withstand alot of parameter swings. To have one die makes me thinks something is awry with your params.

 

[Jacobyang]

I just checked my params again, theyre zero and my PH is 8.3. I just removed the dead fish and all my other fish seems to be fine.

 

[Mical]

Params = Salinity & what are you using to test with, temp, phosphate, ammonia, Alk,Cal, Mag, nitrate to start. What test kits are you using? We're trying to help - Damsels are some of the hardiest fish in saltwater. Unless yours was sick from the beginning, it's hard to believe it just died or was killed by a starfish. I've seen damsels live in 1.010 salinity! They can dang near live in tap water.

 

[Jacobyang]

My salinity is 1.023 to 1.024, Im using saltwater master test kit. It only shows me the phospate, ammonia, NO3 and NO2. Temp is 79.0F, the damsel was a recent purchase2 days ago and I bought 3 domino damsels, two of them are living right now just fine and the other one was not eating today when I was feeding frozen and live brine shrimp. I always feed brine shrimp or pallets, live brine when I go my LFP to pick some up every 2 weeks or so. It was hiding in the rock where my starfish was, and thats why I thought maybe the brittle has caught the damsel when it was just getting used to the new tank. They were all acclimated properly via drip acclimation for 45 minutes, I really don't see what could have went wrong here. If it is a disease what can I do?

 

[Jacobyang]

I also have 2 clownfish and an anemone that were doing great before the damsels came, and a small cuc of hermit crabs and stuff. I isolated my emerald crab into the refugium caz it was bothering the anemone.

 

[Gareth elliott]

not a serpent but starfish can catch fish if they happen to get caught in their grip.
with green serpent stars more often than not this happens when the fish is resting at night in the rock work. Not sure if yours isOphiarachna incrassata which is usually where you see this behavior.

 

[Mical]

My salinity is 1.023 to 1.024, Im using saltwater master test kit. It only shows me the phospate, ammonia, NO3 and NO2. Temp is 79.0F, the damsel was a recent purchase2 days ago and I bought 3 domino damsels, two of them are living right now just fine and the other one was not eating today when I was feeding frozen and live brine shrimp. I always feed brine shrimp or pallets, live brine when I go my LFP to pick some up every 2 weeks or so. It was hiding in the rock where my starfish was, and thats why I thought maybe the brittle has caught the damsel when it was just getting used to the new tank. They were all acclimated properly via drip acclimation for 45 minutes, I really don't see what could have went wrong here. If it is a disease what can I do?

You did the right thing acclimating them, maybe it was the weakest of the trio, Damsels can be very territorial and weak ones will hide and literally starve themselves. I suspect your damsel was "odd man out". I don't think it was disease or others would be showing signs.

If it's fish only tank SG seems ok, I like to keep mine about 1.026 (seems to be the sweet spot)

 

[Jacobyang]

Im thinking about quarantining my brittle starfish to the refugium, the clownfish obviously won't be killed cause they always stick around the anemone, but what if the other two damsel decided to hide in that cave? Should I leave it in the refugium? also when I added my brittle starfish I saw a declind in my snail population, my margarita snails are usually all over the rocks and glass, but now I only see one or two. Could the hermit crabs be killing them or the brittle be doing that? They should have enough food, I always leave a bit of food on the sand bed and the next morning it would always be gone, so they shouldn't be hungry.

 

[Mathman]

I have always heard that if they are smooth underneath they are good but spikes all the way around are hunters.

 

[Jacobyang]

I have always heard that if they are smooth underneath they are good but spikes all the way around are hunters.

Oof I have a grey one and a red one and they're both spiky, I try to feed them to the best of my ability and sometimes even direct feeding.

 

[Mathman]

I ask the lfs to turn them over because they look too similar to their nefarious relatives

 

[Jacobyang]

or should I leave it in the sump?

 

[reef lover]

Brittle stars are harmless...i have 3 in my 120, 2 very spikey and 1 normal spikes...but Green serpents on the other hand are hunters.

 

[Billdogg]

Brittle stars are harmless...i have 3 in my 120, 2 very spikey and 1 normal spikes...but Green serpents on the other hand are hunters.

IME, the large red ones can and will hunt in the same manner. What they do is stand up on their legs creating an arch that unsuspecting fish swim into and then grab and trap the fish. Kinda cool to watch, at least until you realize that it is hunting for an expensive snack!

All of the serpent/brittle stars will happily munch on a sick/injured/already dead fish - that's just what they do, but at least for me, it's only the green or red serpents that will actively hunt, and then only when they get pretty large.