Thanks for all the advice on brittle stars people. I know I have a "green death" star but I'm still keen that it should be well cared for (since the LFS who sold it to me as "fully grown and harmless" has gone out of business - no surprise - so I cannot return it to him).

Anybody any more ideas on whether I should leave him/her well alone or fish him out of the rear compartment?

Thanks

Hi all. Hope you guys can help (as you have so many times in the past).

I have an Orca 450 nano.
No fish.
A couple of hermits, a few snails, a load of tiny starfish (that came in on LR I assume since I didn't add them) and one green brittle starfish.

It's the brittle green that's the possible problem (and yes, I do know that the LFS lied about their nature and size but I have it now (and have had for several months) and to be honest I quite like him.

For the last two days he has been in one of the three rear compartments (the far left as you look from the front).
When I first noticed him missing (if you see what I mean) I was just impressed (again) with how well he can hide. After a while I looked harder and finally discovered him in the rear compartment.
He MUST have got there through the pump return inlet (no idea what the real name for it is but it's a hole between the rear compartment and the main tank).
He must have been there at least 48 hours now.
He is lively (i.e. runs away under the bag of filter material whenever I put the light on) and I've dropped a couple of crab pellets (his favourite) in for him.

I had assumed that he would be able to get back up and into the main tank but as time goes on I am beginning to wonder.

Any ideas anyone?

If I need to "rescue" him - is he OK to handle (for me AND for him)?

Sorry if this all sounds too daft for words but I am concerned.

Thanks in advance.

Cube? What's in the cube?

Wish I had a big tank too

Hi all.
I'm sure this has been covered in so many different ways but I'm interested in what people feed their nanos.
I currently have very little IN the tank (a brittle star plus CUC) but am about to increase stock.
Obviously different stock needs different feed but I was wondering what people feed their tanks, how often, how much, etc

For example - I read about "shrimp". Is this brine shrimp? Brine shrimp eggs? A bit of shrimp from the fishmongers?

Ever so slightly confused (might be my age of course).

My hermits have a selection of shells and one has moved on fairly recently.
Not sure why I'd have copper in the tank I'm afraid but it's certainly not something I've had in there knowingly.

I did consider that and cannot prove it isn't but since the brittle leaves the crabs alone and I've never seen it attack a snail I assumed not. I also assumed it would find it hard to get to the snails (what with the shell and all).

I seem to be unable to keep turbos alive.
I bought a couple as part of my clean-up crew and they lasted a few weeks before I found one upside down. Thinking it was just stupid, I tipped it up the right way but it never moved again (so I assume it is dead).
A week or two later, 2nd one went the same way.
I bought two more and one of those did the same thing.
I bought another. within a month I found it (or it's friend) in the same condition.
Water is fine (hermits and brittle star are fine).
LR is thriving.

I've had the tank several months now and am just considering adding something "pretty" to it (not sure what yet) but dont want to do anything if I cannot even keep a snail alive.

Any ideas?

In case it helps ...
Orca 450L nano. One green brittle. One red-legged hermit. One blue-legged hermit. One (now) turbo.
A lot of what might be macro-algae.
Feed once a day with crab pellets (I expect I should vary the diet some but the crabs run for the pellets and the star likes them too).

Might be a brittle star.

Thanks to a series of events I won't go into here (they are all in another post) I have ended up with a green brittle (or is it bristle, I've not worked that out yet) star.
Despite the risk of it eating anything else I put in the tank in the future (it is currently happy to eat crab pellets but leaves my two hermits, mostly, in peace) I like it.
It moves like an octopus over the ground and watching it pick up and eat food is pretty cool.

I also seem to have a load (at least 10) mini stars that must have come on the LR. About 2 inches across, very fine legs, brown or perhaps black with lighter coloured hoops around the legs. I thought they were worms as I only saw one leg at a time - until one came out of it's hidey-hole one day.

Thanks guys (as ever).
I'll try and get a pic of it before I scissor it. Be nice to know what it is (as I'm sure going to find it hard to get rid of it totally).

The rate it grows at, if someone wants some I am sure I could oblige within a couple of weeks anyway.

I am about to embark on adding some (or perhaps one) fish as I'm pretty happy with the stability of the tank now.
perhaps they (it) will do me a favour and eat it.

Hi all
I got back from holiday to find that a small patch of green "grass" that had appeared and was looking quite attractive had turned into a massive forest.
It is made up of bright green tendrils from which hang hundreds of what I can only assume are roots since anything they touch they latch onto.

Any ideas what I've got? Any ideas how to get rid of it (pulling it out is a nightmare as I end up dislodging LR all over the place).