Does anyone else feel like they're just dumping money down the drain?

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Bob Weigant]

This hobby can be brutal

 

[Privateye]

Whoa whoa whoa, I was reading through this thinking about peppermint shrimp prices in Canada, but then I read you have 3 brittle stars?

I had a thriving stomatella snail population before introducing a pink brittle star. Never again will I make that mistake. Took years to find more stomatellas and get them breeding.

Okay, that's one thing, but you mentioned a green brittle star? Does it look like this?

If so, take that thing out. It's a downright fish-killer. Shrimp killer too, especially when that shrimp likes to hang upside-down on things. That's from experience. For more information, read the article on predatory brittle stars here (towards the end):

https://issuu.com/reefhobbyistmagazine/docs/88fee0421317424e4469f33a48f50cb0-ve

Remember when Reef Hobbyist had some cool, out-there articles instead of "here is my tank" articles?

I also suspect my pink one killed my hi-fin goby. He sure put in the effort at least. It's a terrifying thought. These guys lift their bodies up on their legs, wait for something to pass underneath, and then ensnare them with a downward twisting motion with their legs. It gives me the heebie jeebies when inverts eat verts. More power to them though!

 

[F i s h y]

Of course I am.... every time I do a water change... everytime I empty the water from acclimating hundreds of dollars in coral.or fish.... I know ultimately every dollar I put in my tank is one invested in futility because my tank will not live forever unfortunately....

 

[Daddy-o]

Whoa whoa whoa, I was reading through this thinking about peppermint shrimp prices in Canada, but then I read you have 3 brittle stars?

I had a thriving stomatella snail population before introducing a pink brittle star. Never again will I make that mistake. Took years to find more stomatellas and get them breeding.

Okay, that's one thing, but you mentioned a green brittle star? Does it look like this?

If so, take that thing out. It's a downright fish-killer. That's from experience. For more information, read the article on predatory brittle stars here (towards the end):

https://issuu.com/reefhobbyistmagazine/docs/88fee0421317424e4469f33a48f50cb0-ve

Remember when Reef Hobbyist had some cool, out-there articles instead of "here is my tank" articles?

I also suspect my pink one killed my hi-fin goby. He sure put in the effort at least. It's a terrifying thought. These guys lift their bodies up on their legs, wait for something to pass underneath, and then ensnare them with a downward twisting motion with their legs. It gives me the heebie jeebies when inverts eat verts. More power to them though!

I have 3 and never had them go after a fish

 

[Privateye]

I have 3 and never had them go after a fish

And that is totally fine. Glad to hear it in fact. It all depends on which fish are around, how much things are fed, your individual, etc. It's widely-documented that Ophiarachna inrassata has a tendency to eat fish though, as a species. When I worked for a maintenance company my boss never liked to read magazines. I was new, so I did. I found this article, and we had a customer with one 2' across that kept losing fish for 2 years. Old and new. Removed that brittle star, no more losses. I can't 100% attribute causation in this case, as we were visiting one per month. There was a correlation though. We moved it to a tank with bigger fish.

My pink brittle star would sit at the openings of caves and channels in my tank, lifted up, ready to strike. I can't say that it got the goby, but it tried hard and the goby disappeared. All of the stomatellas, 100% attributed to it though. There were shells everywhere. Not 1 survived.

I only keep those tiny, ~1" diameter hitchhiker brittle stars now.

 

[Iversonforever3]

IMO id look at the pistol shrimp as well. Might of shot them and brought to its cave to eat .. pistols are very territorial. Mine basically killed everything in my nano , and then bam I caught and got rid of the pistol.. In the ocean , pistols prey on on other shrimp as food . But that’s just my 2c.

 

[rob taft]

Have had my 50 gallon tank setup for about 9 months now. I've done this (salt) before but it was years ago. I've had freshwater for many years. I rarely lose anything other than from old age or accident but I made a mistake and placed a silver belly Wrasse in my tank and in a week, 3 peppermint shrimp,. one cleaner shhrimp and two Emerald crabs were eaten. I found the remains of the Emerald crabs. This fish is voracious and continually on the hunt. The only reason, I havn't given him back to the LSF is that I'm in the process of setting up a larger tank and he will due well in that tank.