Brittle Stars & Serpent Stars
An interesting tidbit from Advanced Aquarist. Full article titled
"A Look at the Ophiuroids: Brittle, Serpent, and Basket Stars" is HERE.
..... "However, I have read and heard that some of the commonly-offered small to medium brittle/serpent stars will dine on one particular type of invertebrate often found in reef aquariums, being feather duster tube worms like Bispira sp. Apparently some species will indeed extract such worms from their tubes and eat them.4 So, be mindful of this if you have, and plan on keeping, any of these in your aquarium."
.... "Lastly, there are a couple of other things to know about brittle/serpent stars before I finish. The first is that you need to be very careful when acclimating any of them. For whatever reason, I've found that these are generally quite sensitive with respect to changing conditions, and should be given plenty of time to adjust to your aquarium's water. A slow drip acclimation is likely the best way to go, and all you need is a small bucket and a piece of airline tubing. Put the specimen in the bucket with the water from the store, and then start a siphon from the tank to the bucket with the tubing. To slow down the flow, just tie a knot in the tubing. Then, let the tank water slowly mix into the store's water, until you have at least four times as much water in the bucket as you started with (roughly). Then add your specimen to the tank.
Also be sure to look for any sort of white, slimy looking matter on a specimen while shopping. They tend to sort of turn white and mushy when they're in bad health, so be on the lookout for anything that doesn't look right. In my experience they very rarely recover once this starts to happen, so pass over a specimen showing any such signs."
Ophiuroids (other than basket stars) that have relatively fancy arms are typically called brittle stars (L), while those that have relatively smooth arms are often called serpent stars (R).
"A Look at the Ophiuroids: Brittle, Serpent, and Basket Stars" is HERE.
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..... "However, I have read and heard that some of the commonly-offered small to medium brittle/serpent stars will dine on one particular type of invertebrate often found in reef aquariums, being feather duster tube worms like Bispira sp. Apparently some species will indeed extract such worms from their tubes and eat them.4 So, be mindful of this if you have, and plan on keeping, any of these in your aquarium."
.... "Lastly, there are a couple of other things to know about brittle/serpent stars before I finish. The first is that you need to be very careful when acclimating any of them. For whatever reason, I've found that these are generally quite sensitive with respect to changing conditions, and should be given plenty of time to adjust to your aquarium's water. A slow drip acclimation is likely the best way to go, and all you need is a small bucket and a piece of airline tubing. Put the specimen in the bucket with the water from the store, and then start a siphon from the tank to the bucket with the tubing. To slow down the flow, just tie a knot in the tubing. Then, let the tank water slowly mix into the store's water, until you have at least four times as much water in the bucket as you started with (roughly). Then add your specimen to the tank.
Also be sure to look for any sort of white, slimy looking matter on a specimen while shopping. They tend to sort of turn white and mushy when they're in bad health, so be on the lookout for anything that doesn't look right. In my experience they very rarely recover once this starts to happen, so pass over a specimen showing any such signs."
Ophiuroids (other than basket stars) that have relatively fancy arms are typically called brittle stars (L), while those that have relatively smooth arms are often called serpent stars (R).
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