Brittle star question

[mrrrkva]

I have 4 brittle stars that I have had for years. I noticed one today had NO legs. No fish in this tank except for 1 green Chromis. I do have scarlet hermits and turbo snails. What happend to his legs?? I have noticed one of my crabs isnt scarlet and he is now in a turbo snails shell. He has grey and orange legs.

 

[Roach]

Wow, I have never seen without any legs. I have a couple in my tank and they have lost a leg here and there. Might be the hermits...they can really get nasty when they get bigger.

 

[RFK]

Mantis?

 

[danmhippo]

Have you check your water parameter recently? How is the alk and NO3? I often seen brittle star drop legs when improperly acclimized. Could your water been deteriorating?

 

[Anonymous]

I had a britle star with no body once. Just the arms. He finally died of an infection. but it was weird while it lasted.

 

[danmhippo]

errrr, Rover, which part of town are you from?

Actually, I remembered someone post a while back that he had a brittle star lost all the legs. He managed to slip food under the body to keep it alive for months??? Guess anything could happen in the tank!! (yeah, no bodies.......hmph...that's a good one!)

 

[rmor22]

When I was new to the hobby, I added something (can't remember what) to treat the fish. My green starfish lost all of his legs. He would move across the tank and his legs would fall off in pieces. I slipped food underneath him until he grew his legs back. He is doing fine and that was thirteen years ago!