brittle star....what to feed

[mike90]

hi guys and gals.
i have a brittle star in my tank and i need to know what to feed him. my tank has only been up and running about 1 month. what should i feed him? im afraid he's not getting enough food found on the bottom since its a new tank. it does have about 45 pounds of live rock in it though. also how can i make sure he gets the food and not the fish?

:?

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

You should definently try to make sure it eats, as it probably will slowly starve if you just hope it gets fed on tank leftovers and whatever it can find in the tank.
I'd try some silversides, they are probably available at you local fish store. You can try to target feed it by shooting some in its direction with a turkey baster if you are worried about competition from the fish, or you could feed the fish heavily before you feed the brittle star. My brittlestars have never been particularly picky, and would take any frozen foods I gave them.

 

[mike90]

once guy told me to use frozen shrimp. is this just the kind of shrimp that you would buy to go fishing with or is there a special kind? also what do the silversides look like? are they dry food, flakes...????

 

[Anonymous]

Silversides are small silver fish that come in a vaccume pack from the lfs. Frozen shrimp, I buy mine at the grocery store, the ready to cook ones. Unless your star is huge, I wouldn't feed it the whole shrimp or silver side.

 

[Anonymous]

Frozen shrimp are just the RAW table shrimp that you can buy at the fish counter of your grocery store. Just make sure they are not cooked, and chop into suitable sizes. I find them easier to chop when they are partially frozen.

 

[mike90]

oh ok. so like the circular ring of shrimp cocktails at the store right? how big a piece should i put in the tank? he's not a very big star fish.

 

[Anonymous]

No no no, those are cooked when they are in the ring like that.

Do you have a seafood counter, in the back of the store, where they have ice laid out and pieces of fish and shrimp in piles on the ice? I figure if we can get that out here in Iowa they must have seafood everywhere.

But seriously, check the labels and make sure you get the raw stuff. Even half a pound lasts me a long time. Near where they sell the shrimp cocktail rings there should be small bags of frozen raw shrimp.

I would feed a small peice, maybe a quarter of the size of his main body.

 

[mike90]

oh ok! gotcha! Thanks all!

 

[Len]

Mike, cute puffer avatar

 

[stubbsz]

Wow mine must be getting pretty hungry after 7 years without feeding...
They seem to do just fine with whatever my fish miss... or maybe they are eating poop

 

[mike90]

sounds yummy!