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Green Brittle star & Bandensis

djdime

GPO
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Jan 18, 2009
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Yay or Nay?

just bought one but read they can be voracious ( should have checked first really )

Anywho, my cuttles are still in a nursery so safe for now.

:confused:
 
They have a reputation (as you have seen) and can get huge (as I have seen in the pet stores). Mine was frail and kept losing arms but survived. After four years (maybe longer) of staying small and constantly missing arms, he suddenly doubled his size and is a very active eater (no clue why). We removed him from the octo tank because of the reputation and we saw him aggressively going after the octos food and harassing the octo when he was eating. I have no clue if he could have caused the octopus harm as we moved him to his own tank (that he is out growing). Our thinking was better safe than sorry.

I will warn you that if the star is in the tank in a net breeder, the cuttles are not safe from the stars activity as the star can easily enter the container unless it it floating outside its reach from a tank wall. They are as wiley as any octopus and get into more places than any of my octos considered worth investigating.
 
hmmmm interesting.

whats stars would you recommend? ones that would actively feed of cuttle mess?
 
I keep octopuses and not cuttles (have tried once and will again when, if ever :biggrin2:, my current conflicting residence of the 140 pass on).

Serpent stars of any kind have been great and I keep them in all my tanks. After acclimating to feeding time, they are actively seen and interesting. There are a variety of colors including orange, brown and black and white and I find one per 25 gallons about right.

Brittles can be a little more pesky (as in SueNami's acclimation video) and I would avoid them with babies but have had not trouble with anything other than annoying the octos trying to discover food remains with any of the ones I have tried. the orange/red are particularly attractive but very active. The serpents tend to stay to the LR and bottom substrate and have a lot of difficulty climbing the aquarium walls where the brittles can, as I mentioned about the green, go anywhere an octo can and do go in places they would not choose to. Great for cleaning but a caution to consider for babies. Even if they, as I suspect of my orange, can't hurt the anaimal, they will and can harass them trying to find food.

If you need a source for a selection of the serpents, I am the webmaster for a collector and am always willing to recommend Ken if you care to have something shipped.:sagrin:
 
ive taken your advice and sumped the green tonight.

thanks for the kind offer of sourcing, however im in the uk :frown:
 
Wish you would add the location to your profile - it is useful sometimes :biggrin2: - but I am glad you moved the green.

We are fond of Mr. Green Jeans since it is the oldest critter we have and he has been nursed it through a lot of arms but trust with other critters is not something I have with its new robustness.
 
Depending upon your supplier's definition :roll: you may get the attractive black and white harlequin and/or the also very nice orange tiger striped variety. Both are nocturnal and shy (as with all serpents) but in a month or so will know when it is feeding time and show up. The one advantage of the greens (Mr. Green Jeans is in his own tank at the moment) is that they do not seem to be as nocturnal if nocturanal at all and mine is out much of the time.

All of mine have been in a tank environment for at least a year (I think I have only lost one in four years and have seen tiny ones in the reef. The little ones are likely hitch hickers rather than tank bred but I don't know) and they are out before the food enters the tank. The ones in SueNami's tank are often patially seen during the day and will react as if hoping for food to the shadows of people approaching the tank. They are definitely one of my favorite clean-up crew critters.

In my group (I have 7 and now maybe 8 full time tanks of various sizes) all have some form of echinoderm, all the larger ones have serpents in addition to brittles, thorney's or common stars. Only the largest supports the commons though and then just barely. The thorney's (my very favorite) are not nocturnal, terrific scavengers, hardy and brightly colored but not fully reef safe. They are excellent for a limited octopus environment but not the more typical reef of a cuttlefish home.
 
Any large seastar, brittle star, serpent star or even some urchins can eat small animals like baby cuttlefish, so excersize caution when adding any of them. Sleeping animals are easy prey.
 
dwhatley;135125 said:
Depending upon your supplier's definition :roll: you may get the attractive black and white harlequin and/or the also very nice orange tiger striped variety. Both are nocturnal and shy (as with all serpents) but in a month or so will know when it is feeding time and show up. The one advantage of the greens (Mr. Green Jeans is in his own tank at the moment) is that they do not seem to be as nocturnal if nocturanal at all and mine is out much of the time.

All of mine have been in a tank environment for at least a year (I think I have only lost one in four years and have seen tiny ones in the reef. The little ones are likely hitch hickers rather than tank bred but I don't know) and they are out before the food enters the tank. The ones in SueNami's tank are often patially seen during the day and will react as if hoping for food to the shadows of people approaching the tank. They are definitely one of my favorite clean-up crew critters.

In my group (I have 7 and now maybe 8 full time tanks of various sizes) all have some form of echinoderm, all the larger ones have serpents in addition to brittles, thorney's or common stars. Only the largest supports the commons though and then just barely. The thorney's (my very favorite) are not nocturnal, terrific scavengers, hardy and brightly colored but not fully reef safe. They are excellent for a limited octopus environment but not the more typical reef of a cuttlefish home.

Cool. well i will take some pictures when they come and update my tank thread.

thanks for the advice anyway mate :smile: appreciate it.

finger crossed, shouldnt be long before the cuttles are in. the largest is now hand feeding on krill superba.
 
spinycheek;135136 said:
Any large seastar, brittle star, serpent star or even some urchins can eat small animals like baby cuttlefish, so excersize caution when adding any of them. Sleeping animals are easy prey.

I'll agree to a point. Any star, snail, urchin or other clean-up crew member will try to eat eggs. I have not had brittles in the tank with young octos but the serpents and thorny's never bothered my mercatoris hatchlings so I have no concern about them in any of my octo tanks. You will almost always find the serpents close to or living in an octo den and I have observed my nonbrooding female mercatoris move out of her den just long enough for one of the resident serpents to go in and clean and then return to her den.
 

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