Serpent Star

I added one of these to my tank yesterday, I hope it was a good move, I think food is already hard enough to find for the clean up crew members I have already, I understand they eat fish pooh, is that correct? Can't take any pics, it already disappeared along with my Emarald Crab and Porcelain Crab, which I still see once in a blue moon

 

Yes they can become fish eaters.

They do this maneuver where they arch up and stay that way until a fish swims below the arms and bam, free food. It's probably a learned behavior to some extent.

Green and Banded seem to be the most likely to be fish eaters.

 

oohh! I was told fish pooh, but not while the pooh was still in the fish, its not green or banded. Why are they on most clean up crew list? Man! good luck to me getting him out of there, I was going to put it in my refugium to :/

 

Not all are criminals, if a fish or shrimp goes missing they can be the usual suspect.

If in the future you need to remove him just put some food in the tank, they usually become the most aggressive eaters in the tank. Just a small drop of food into the tank and they come running.

A lot of people keep them without issue, a lot of people can not understand way their fish went missing as well.

 

I got 3 fish, a gramma and 2 perculas. I found a shell this morning that normally housed a reef hermit?

 

I have kept these stars in many tanks and have never had them bother any of my fish/hermits. They are scavengers but require feeding a couple times a week.I used to feed mine Freeze dried Krill,pieces of fresh fish, or shrimp.If you feed it I don't believe you should have any issues with it.

 

Mine doesn't bother anything. A gobie sometimes sleeps right next to it. I spot feed mine once or twice a week and it's growing. I wouldn't leave it to get all of it's food from scavenging around the tank. That's probably why some end up going after fish. Probably starving.

 

There's the standard answers for ya...some people have no problem with them, other people have nothing but problems with them, and some have no problem for a long time, then lose a great fish or crustacean to one of them. My experience has been that they very likely WILL eventually eat any shrimp you have, if they are large serpent stars, regardless of color.

Cheers,



Don

 

I think they get a bad rep bc they will eat a dead fish.people see it clutching a dead fish and say it must have killed it and its now eating it... I have only seen those big green mamajammas cause an issue. Its likely due to starvation....bigger critter bigger belly to fill

 

I've had them in every tank but my seahorse tanks with the oldest ones being in my main reef tank having been there now about 15yrs or so.
There are four of them in a 90g tank, less in the smaller tanks.
Most are about a foot in diameter.
I sometimes hear people saying they lost something to a serpent but most times the losses are attributed to brittle stars (especially the green), not the serpents.