Brittle in a 'fuge?

[in_a_days]

Hello all. I have a 56 gallon corner which houses a Volitan Lion. It's a species tank and I don't intend to stock it with any other fish. I have a blue damsel that seems to be too much trouble for him to eat, but other than that the tank is all his.

So I just acquired a little 10 gallon with the intent of setting up a small refugium. I know that main reason for a 'fuge is to raise the pod and brine shrimp population for feeding. But I'm really just trying to bring the nitrates and phosphates down ever so slightly if I possibly can, as my lion seems to produce a ton of both.

I recently noticed what looked like a little worm hanging out of a piece of cured live rock I got from the LFS. After further examination I thought it looked like a brittle star arm and sure enough I found a couple more arms hanging out of the rock and eventually found a section of his body with a flashlight through a hole in the rock. Guy has been in there for at least two weeks without me ever having noticed. I've read in a lot of places that you need to be very slow when acclimating stars to a new tank, but this guy speaks to the toughness of his species as I just dropped this piece of rock right into my tank. But regardless, there must be a cavity in the rock in which he resides 'cause I've never seen him during the day, at all, and at night I only ever see a few arms reaching out from different holes in the rock.

So what all this leads me to is the question of whether or not I should move this piece of live rock in to my new refugium... My lion has eaten pretty much every addition I have attempted (with the exception of this stupid damsel) and I don't want the brittle to get gobbled. But at the same time I had intended to put a small Goby in the 'fuge and if the brittle is likely to make dinner out of him, I don't want to do that either... So I guess the question this is all boils down to is this... which is more likely, for a lion to eat a brittle star, or for a brittle star to eat a Goby?

Thanks in advance.

[Edd13]

well i think it might depend on the brittle star ... i have a serpintine brittle thats the size of a frisbi in my tank and he leaves everyone alone and has been in there for a year now... but every animal behaves slightly differantly from tank to tank ... if the goby disappears all of the sudden well you know the star shouldn't go in the main tank

[Melanie]

Are you sure it's a brittle star and not a serpent star? I have tons of serpent stars living in my LR and to my knowledge, they never leave. They seem to survive on whatever food floats by.

I think you are safe putting the rock in either the fuge or display.

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by Melanie

Are you sure it's a brittle star and not a serpent star? I have tons of serpent stars living in my LR and to my knowledge, they never leave. They seem to survive on whatever food floats by.

I think you are safe putting the rock in either the fuge or display.

To tell you the truth I'm really not sure whether it's a brittle or serpent. He definitely has little whiskery cilia that look like a million little feet on his arms. I thought I had read somewhere that this made him a brittle star, but I could have just imagined that.

I am sure that he's not going to get eaten as long as he's holed up in this rock, and at this point I'm not quite sure what I'll do if I see him out. But thanks ya'll for the input.

[Dentoid]

It's highly unlikely for either event to occur. A Lionfish is not interested in such a small meal and unless it's a Green Brittle star will not catch a fish and eat it. Moreover, Lionfish have poor eye sight and is generally not scanning the LR for small brittle stars.

[framerguy]

So I just acquired a little 10 gallon with the intent of setting up a small refugium. I know that main reason for a 'fuge is to raise the pod and brine shrimp population for feeding. But I'm really just trying to bring the nitrates and phosphates down ever so slightly if I possibly can, as my lion seems to produce a ton of both.

Another reason to have a refugium can be for nitrate reduction. A 6"DSB in the refugium along with some sort of algae growth or a mangrove tree can accomplish that. It's not "just" a haven for pods. Keep the LR to a minimum or 0 in the fuge for nitrate reduction.

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by framerguy

Another reason to have a refugium can be for nitrate reduction. A 6"DSB in the refugium along with some sort of algae growth or a mangrove tree can accomplish that. It's not "just" a haven for pods. Keep the LR to a minimum or 0 in the fuge for nitrate reduction.

Well thanks for the heads up with regards to LR. I was going to put some small pieces in, but if they're not going to help with nitrate I wont. Also I've been thinking about using some of the mud the sell on the 'net. Can I use this in conjunction with sand, or is it one or the other?

I've heard mangroves are kinda slow, but beneficial for the filtering process. I'm probably going to add a couple just 'cause I think they look cool.

[BoomerD]

How big is this thing? There are the tiny (1/2") microbrittles that are very common with live rock, then there are the "normal sized" (my last one had about 14" legs and 1-1/2 to 2" body) ones that you generally have to buy. Those get pretty large, although in my experience, only the green brittle is bothersome to fish...the rest are just good scavengers.

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by BoomerD

How big is this thing? There are the tiny (1/2") microbrittles that are very common with live rock, then there are the "normal sized" (my last one had about 14" legs and 1-1/2 to 2" body) ones that you generally have to buy. Those get pretty large, although in my experience, only the green brittle is bothersome to fish...the rest are just good scavengers.

Well I've never seen him outside the crevices in this piece of live rock, but he's definitely no micro. Easily four or five inches from exposed arm tip to tip, so he's not huge, but I think he's of the sort that you'd normally have to purchase.

I only see him at night, and when I throw a small flashlight on him he pulls his arms in pretty quickly. But he looks to be kind of a sandy gray color. I can see some faint black and white bars, but no where near as defined as I've seen on Harlequin Serpents at the LFS. But I'm still not really clear on how to tell the difference between a brittle and a serpent.

And this is probably silly, but do I need to be concerned that he's stuck in the rock? I mean it's very porous so there's probably plenty of room for him. But it's not a very large piece and I'd hate for him to be trapped.

[BoomerD]

Ok, that's definitely one of the keepers IMO. I had one very similarly colored...that's the BIG one I had. I never could get decent pics of it...almost always inside a large rock...(no, don't worry about it being in the rock...it can get out if it wants to...
From the description, yours probably looks similar to this:


I was a good "host" in that I target fed my brittle and serpent (both in the same tank) bits of shrimp or silversides when I fed my anemones...usually 2X weekly.

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by BoomerD

Ok, that's definitely one of the keepers IMO. I had one very similarly colored...that's the BIG one I had. I never could get decent pics of it...almost always inside a large rock...(no, don't worry about it being in the rock...it can get out if it wants to...
From the description, yours probably looks similar to this:

I was a good "host" in that I target fed my brittle and serpent (both in the same tank) bits of shrimp or silversides when I fed my anemones...usually 2X weekly.

Yes that looks very very similar to what I'm seeing, though considerably larger. Do you know the species name?

[BoomerD]

Nah...it could probably be ascertained, but it was just sold as "gray-black striped brittlestar."
You could possibly try here:
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