Brittle Star (green)

[pufferboy]

I just had 4 or 5 little brittle stars hitch hike, do they hurt anything? Main body only 3 mm in size. Arms are less then an inch. Should i begin getting rid of them???????

[binford4000]

I just had 4 or 5 little brittle stars hitch hike, do they hurt anything? Main body only 3 mm in size. Arms are less then an inch. Should i begin getting rid of them???????

There's only a few star fish you have to be concerned about.The green brittle is one that is known to be a predator of fish and the king is a coral eater but if you had one of those you'd have no room they're huge.If your talking about the small black brittle stars they're one of the few that are truely benifical to your tank because they are great cleaners of excess food and waste.The common star fish hitch hiker is the asteria which when kept in check are really no threat.They're the small white ones.I have had a blackish grey asteria type that was very damaging to my corals.I would find them litteraly on top of the polyp's eating away.They loved gobstopers for some reason.I now have the opinon the only good star fish in a reef tank is a dead one.Harlaqin shrimp are neater then star fish anyway lol