how long before i can add a brittle starfish?

[pastina]

i have my eye on a black brittle starfish. i know my tank is still new and im willing to wait for this starfish, but how old should a tank be before i add one?
my tank is 55g, 5 weeks old
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10ppm, im deteremined to get this down to zero. ive been doing bi-weekly 10% water changes

i just hope i dont have to wait 6 months for a brittle SF

[jdbassin]

as long as the tank has stabalized it will be fine, Being so new of a tank you may need to feed it directly some but otherwise no problems. Just stick a piece of krill or fish under it's central disk once or twice a week.


jd

[pastina]

oooo ok cool

yay

[Twitterbait]

I agree... i will say that you will drop the nitrates faster by doing a large change once, than many smaller changes.

[Geoff]

i do not worry about nitrates below 20ppm. this is generally below the real resolution of most test kits, so i really would not worry about those nitrate levels.

black brittle stars are very hardy. they can handle salinity changes fairly well, so you do not have to have an auto-top off. the smaller the central disc the better. the larger the central disc the greater the chance that it will be opportunistic to small fish and shrimp. if this is a true black brittle star than you do not have anything to worry about. i had one for several years. it had a 15" legspan, but the cetral disc was only 1" across. for the first 5 years i had it, i never saw the central disc it stayed in the LR and only arms would come out during feeding time. it was pretty cool to watch these arms come out of a LR .

G~

[pastina]

the one ill probably get is on liveaquaria, its called a banded brittle sea star (Ophiocoma scolopendrina)
says its reef safe but semi aggrasive? aggresive how? like it will catch a fish and eat it? what about shrimp and crabs, dinner?

can i mix him with another starfish like an orange sea star (Echinaster sp)

[ChrisPrusha]

Brittles are known to snack on fish, aren't they?

[dobejazz]

Not to Hijack but is a serpent star and a brittle star the same thing?

[Geoff]

serpent stars have smooth arms

bristle stars have spikes or bristles all over their arms tend to have very small central discs. usually the most reef safe of the three

brittle stars tend to have large central discs and big spikes on their arms.

of course this is very generalized, but close enough for government work.

unfortunately brittle and bristle get interchanged quite a bit.

the important thing is to take note of the size of the central disc. the larger it is the bigger the prey it can consume. i would be worried about any starfish that is listed as semi-aggressive.

G~

[dobejazz]

Thanks Geoff I've always wondered about that

[Geoff]

Ophiocoma scolopendrina- this is not the same star i had. i would not trust that one with small fish or crustaceans. it has a good sized central disc.

G~

[pastina]

okee thnx
since it says semi aggresive i think ill pass as well
ill go for that orange starfish instead, that kind might stay out in the open more too