Brittle starfish killing fish

User1 · Feb 10, 2020

Not all brittle stars are the same. Case in point if you have a Green Brittle Star (Ophiarachna incrassata) it will eat your fish. It hunts at night by raising up, and resting on its arms. Fish think it is a cubby hole, nook, or cranny, enter, and the star wraps it up and eats it. So yes, they will hunt, and prey, on "healthy" fish. Search on the name to learn more.

To the OP - what brittle star do you have? Search and see if it is the same. If so then more than likely especially because damsels like to hide in caves, nooks, and crannies. If it is a different star then could be sick like others hinted at. Just know not all are the same. There is a difference between serpent and brittle.

Admann · Feb 10, 2020

Jacobyang said:
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?

It was probably killed by one of it's own. I had one Domino and got rid of it quick. It wanted to kill everything, murderous little fish, I love the look but never again. You will probably end up with one living. Then he'll go after everything else, except my Tang, he stayed clear of him.

Deberber · Feb 10, 2020

I would say it was on the side it was bullied and stressed to death. Damsels are not great in groups, even ones that they say are. I even had blue green chromis do this. I had them in a group of three, the smallest one died within a week and the second one about a month later. Had just thought I did not acclimate smaller one well enough, but second one that died had noticeable nips on it.