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Brittle Star — friend or foe?

April 26, 2017brittle Foe friend star

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Brittle Star — friend or foe?

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Hi Guys, I have a question about the 2 brittle stars in my tank that I have as part of my cleanup crew. I have a 100 gal FOWLR tank that I set up about 2 months ago (upgraded my old 55 gal tank to this one). I have 2 brittle stars that normally hide in the live rock. They have black bodies and dark red hair-like bristles. Their arms are about 2 inches long. They’re usually very shy until they sense food. Then they get pretty aggressive. The other day I lost one of my small green Chromis when he got into the sump and sent back into the tank in 4 pieces through the pump (bummer, good thing my 4yr old daughter wasn’t watching that!). One of the stars found the largest piece in about 10 minutes and took it back into his crevice with him. Within a half hour everything was cleaned up. My 3 inch purple tang seems afraid of the brittle stars. Whenever he sees them he freaks out. This time his body went pale and he started darting back and forth in the tank. He ca