BAYMAC
Supporting Member
Serpent stars are typically benign, though some call the green/orange/red brittle stars wrongly that, and those guys can catch fish at night.
What is killing my fish. Please help
- Thread starter FreahSaltyGuy
- Start date
BAYMAC
Supporting Member
Serpents aren't the same as brittle. You're thinking of brittle stars, they hunt. Serpents are detritivores IIRC
True, but they could easily be mistaken. I know I wasn't aware of the distinction for a while.
BAYMAC
Supporting Member
Mmmm well, yes and no. one is smooth, they other has bristles. I guess to someone that knows very little, they might look the same despite the obvious differences.
I always alerted my customers to the potential issues with brittles.
Good on you to do. I'm just pointing this out as a possibility to the OP, since they may have been like me and not understood there was a difference between serpent + brittle starfish and used the terms interchangeably.
For the record though, @Coral reefer is likely right and it may not be a predator at all. It's unusual for multiple fish to be killed and no sign of them is left unless it's something like a Nem......
How big is the serpent star???
xcaret
Guest
Open the palm of your hand to get an idea.
xcaret
Guest
Is a night predator IMOE; we noticed fish and coral gone without explanation; my brother at night and only a moonlight on, lights in the room off, saw something dark moving among the rocks; he tried the plastic tongs with no success, those worms are strong. Finally he used long needle nose pliers; he cleaned them really good before plunging the pair in the tank and waited for the worm to come out and bingo !!! After that successful hunt, no more casualties.
There's a picture of it in a 5G bucket after it was caught somewhere buried here. I loaded the image on photo bucket but they changed their policy and now my pictures are held hostage on that platform. I'll try looking for it