morinry Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Hello, I recently aquired a nice well establshed piece of live rock for my 3 gallon picotope from a large community tank at a pet store. Turns out I have a hitchhiking black brittle star. I thought id keep him though I kind of worried for his safety as the tank has only been running less than a week. I noticed today hes lost 2 of his arms and there is nothing in there that could have attacked him. Im now thinking about bringing him back so he doesnt die because im now wondering if low quality water is having an effect. Nitrates are around only 10ppm and everthing else is stable. The only thing my all in one test kit doesnt test for is ammonia so im getting one tomorow but i did a 20% change just to be on the safe side. Any suggestions? Id like to keep him but i dont wanna be a murderer! Link to comment
PoopCola Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 you could try what is called a "soft cycle" this is where you do water changes daily in order to lower the concentrations of ammonia nitrite and nitrate however, your cycle will be longer... Link to comment
morinry Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 you could try what is called a "soft cycle" this is where you do water changes daily in order to lower the concentrations of ammonia nitrite and nitrate however, your cycle will be longer... Thanks for explaining soft cycle because I was wondering what that was, but im an idiot it took until 1:30 am drunk to think of the fact that it was the light that must have been burning him and he must not have been able to find his way back into the cave in the LR! Link to comment
themadride Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Do you have any bristol worms? If so, that could be the reason for the missing legs. Last night I was feeding a little bit of mysis shrimp to the tank and a brittle star came out of his cave amazingly fast to find a piece of shrimp. As soon as he had it in his possession a 3" (relatively small) bristol worm attacked the star and just chomped down on his leg!!! The two crawled back into the cave still fighting. Sheesh! Link to comment
Lmecher Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 brittle stars will loose arms when severly stressed, there is nothing you can do aside from removing it to save it at this point. I don't think it will make it through a cycle. Link to comment
octoberfest Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 Brittle stars loose their legs very easy, part of the game, they can lose a leg and keep on going until it grows back. If it was me I'd leave it in there and see what happens. Moving an invert from tank to tank can be very hard on them so if it was me I'd take my chances with the cycle. Link to comment
dahliaheartsyou Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 it is in your 3 gallon correct? how big of a star are we talking, mini brittle or like a serpent? http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brittlestars.htm if it is a mini, they are like 2-3 inches, but black isn't a common color...but they lose their legs often being brittle stars, their legs are well...brittle LOL. if it is larger, there is no way you can support it in a 3 gallon and it will eat most of your inhabitants. Link to comment
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