Our green brittle starfish has been acting funny since last night. He has now lost 4 of the 5 tentacles about halfway up towards body in the last 24 hours. He is out in the open, he is not hiding in his cave like he normally does. Can they be overfed? For the last month or so we have been giving him a small chunk of squid or shrimp approx ever 3 days. Now this…I havnt given him any extra food for about 3 days. None of the other fish seem to be picking on him and all are acting normal. Ill have tank parameters tonight but all are usually WNL. Just wanted to know if this is normal, are they prone for this to happen, or did i over feed it?
Green brittle starfish HELP
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bairdimusprime
Bill
Maybe something in the tank is picking at it. any large worms in the sang bed or live rock?
Like I posted previously they can lose their legs and regenerate new ones without issue. Green Serpent Stars are fairly hardy but like all stars they can become stressed with declines or large swings in water chemistry and may drop legs. The dropping of a leg or two is not really a concern, more than one or two then yes you're probably looking for another tank inhabitant as the cause or a water quality issue. It's the change in behavior that I see as a concern.
I doubt you can over feed them. They are such enthusiastic eaters that if you did not feed the star it would probably start stealing food.
Triggers can be rascals and pick at things, not as aggression but rather testing inverts out to see if they taste good.
If the star was holding on to a piece of food, not fast eaters, another tank inhabitant may have simply wanted that piece of food.
I doubt you can over feed them. They are such enthusiastic eaters that if you did not feed the star it would probably start stealing food.
Triggers can be rascals and pick at things, not as aggression but rather testing inverts out to see if they taste good.
If the star was holding on to a piece of food, not fast eaters, another tank inhabitant may have simply wanted that piece of food.
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Ok. The starfish is still alive and even though he has lost 4 of 5 legs he is doing ok. Curious that one of he legs is still moving like it is alive... Might be a strange question but will it continue to move?
There is your problem. The Trigger is picking at your Starfish, they Brittle star will grow the legs back, but could die form being picked at by the fish.
