GIANT Hitchhiker

I may be in the wrong section but i have bought a small piece of live rock that i really liked in the fish store because it has a large flat hole , plenty of coraline and an elephant ear shroom!, when i had the actinics on before moon lights i have noticed a large 6'' in diam brittle star that is purplish grey colour and moves like crazy!
i'm 100% positive that it came with the mushroom rock i bought because i never found a brittle star with the cured live rock that was sitting around dry for a month.

are they all reefsafe? would they harm corals/shrimps/snails and crabs? i find him an exciting inhabitant but i'm really picky at keeping my corals safe.

do i need to target feed them? how often? would a brittle that large be a risk to a 5G nano?

 

I've had some good sized stars hitchhike in on things...especially brittle or serpents as they like to curl up in a hole and hide. He may well outgrow your 5g tank, but otherwise shouldn't pose much risk...larger brittle stars can catch small slow moving fish, that's about the only concern I can think of.

 

So they will not consider say a cleaner shrimp or snails and crabs as a meal?

did you target feed them? if so what did you feed and how often?


Thanks

 

I've never had any issues with them eating anything that was in good health, but there are some claims of large ones preying on fish. I don't think you have anything to worry about with other inverts that are in good health. They are an opportunistic scavenger however, so they will make quick work of anything that may be in declining health. I find them to be a great part of my CUC as they will scavenge for any dead animals or uneaten food. In larger tanks they don't need target feeding...and even in your small tank they will probably find enough to eat...I generally target feed as I like to interact with them, LOL! They will take small pieces of most any type of raw meaty seafood.

 

I have found that large red/orange and banded serpent stars if given the chance will eat a sleeping wrasse or clown fish. IME, they are pretty much like arrow crabs they get large fast and have a drive to eat. Mine used to practically crawl out of the tank to get food if they could.

Small brittle stars I have no problem with.

Cool hitch-hiker none the less, congrats.

 

Thank you for your replies,

I'm afraid it will starve in such a small tank being that large so i will be target feeding him atleast once a week or 2 weeks, just a little piece of defrosted shrimp and i think it will benefit from that + eat any algae, detritus etc in my tank.

Do they add to the tank bioload if being fed meaty foods once every 2 weeks? since i don't have any fish i do need a light creature that would add little bioload just to keep my bacteria growing and living, don't ya think? i always wonder.