My Brittlestar

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: d33pt

Originally posted by: trmiv
Sweet, I've wanted to get a brittle star for my reef, but my wife insists they are "creepy" and won't let me get one. Maybe I'll get one for my new tank. I'm in the process of taking both my tanks down and selling off most of the live stock and the tanks because we're moving cross country in two months. A friend is baby sitting my true percula and bangaii cardinal, both that I've had for four years, and then shipping them to me. When we get settled I'll setup a new tank, hopefully a 180, but nothing less than a 120. Maybe I can slip a brittle star in there without her noticing.

how would you ship a fish without it dying? that sounds hard...

How do you think they get to the US, or other areas that they aren't native to?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: d33pt

how would you ship a fish without it dying? that sounds hard...

They put them in poly bags filled with pure 02, double up on the bags and place them in polycell foam shipping containers. These get NFO status (next flight out) and thus the animals are often bagged <12 hours but could probably survive in good condition up to 4X that time if needed.

 

[pontifex]

that looks cool.
i'd like to get a tank and start something but I hate cleaning and feeding...or maybe i;m just lazy.

 

[Torghn]

That's not a brittle star. It's a green serpent star.

Edit: Often green serpent stars are referred to as green brittle stars. brittle star != green brittle star. Two totally different species.

Ok, I'll stop thread crapping now.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: spacejamz

Originally posted by: Baloo
how much does it add to your electric bill for the lighting?

Need to hook up my kilo-a-watt meter to find out...

The lights run from 2 pm to 10 pm every day...

two 65 watt compact flourescent bulbs in the fixture...

It probably costs you ~$53.00 to run the lamps for a year. Fluorescent lights have high efficacy (Lumen per Watt).

Edit: I assumed $0.14 per kWh.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Its cool

Now you need to get ahold of some Japanese School Girls

 

[SSSnail]

Now, it's be awesome if you can get a video of you feeding it.

 

[Doodoo]

Originally posted by: spidey07
lol, come to my tank. I've got hundreds of the little buggers running around.

They reproduce like crazy if they have food.

The hundreds that you have are probably the mini ones...not the green serpent star...i use to have hundreds of the mini brittlestars too...but they've since dissapeared and now i have hundreds of bristleworms. i've always been afraid to get one of the green serpent stars...don't want that thing wrapping around my hand while i'm cleaning my tank.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: d33pt

how would you ship a fish without it dying? that sounds hard...

They put them in poly bags filled with pure 02, double up on the bags and place them in polycell foam shipping containers. These get NFO status (next flight out) and thus the animals are often bagged <12 hours but could probably survive in good condition up to 4X that time if needed.

Yeah, they can last pretty long in shipping - it's not uncommon to have inverts of specific types shipped in from another country, which can take 3 to 4 days.

 

[Wuffsunie]

At least she's eating frozen food and not your fish. Which is actually probably why it's not gone after your fish. The green ones are predatory I believe and will go after fish if they can get them asleep.

At least yours comes out. I have an actual brown brittle start. After getting it, it took up residence in one of my rocks and hasn't really moved since. I see its tentacle poking out now and again. I have a red porcelain crab that's the same way (I see her now and again, and more often than not just the molted shell) that actually lives in the same rock.

Edit: How big is this tank anyway? 20 gallon?

For the algae problem, is that red slime algae? If so, pretty much any of the treatments they have out there work really well. I had that once, dosed the tank once, and that took care of it. Of course I also got a diamond goby to stir my sand...

Originally posted by: Homerboy
nice tank, but I prefer to conserve the reefs

By and large, that's what he's doing. Though with mushrooms it's debatable if they're cultured or caught. Live rock of course has to come from the ocean, it's not produced otherwise. Can't tell where that's from for certain, though Fiji would be the best guess. You can buy dead base rock for a tank and seed it with about 10% live rock and after a while get the dead rock revitalized, but that takes time and depending on tank size you're still looking at a good amount of live rock.

I have a 90 gallon SPS and clam dominated tank. A majority of my own corals are cultured, just for safety reasons. I've had outbreaks of most of the nastier critters possible from wild corals.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

OP: Looks nice, I'm hoping to setup a reef tank sometime myself

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
OP: Looks nice, I'm hoping to setup a reef tank sometime myself

Do LOTS of research and decide VERY carefully what you want beforehand. Reef tanks = ungodly amounts of money. At least certain types (mine) do.

 

[Krazy4Real]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie
At least yours comes out. I have an actual brown brittle start. After getting it, it took up residence in one of my rocks and hasn't really moved since. I see its testicles poking out now and again. I have a red porcelain crab that's the same way (I see her now and again, and more often than not just the molted shell) that actually lives in the same rock.

 

[moonbit]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
OP: Looks nice, I'm hoping to setup a reef tank sometime myself

Do LOTS of research and decide VERY carefully what you want beforehand. Reef tanks = ungodly amounts of money. At least certain types (mine) do.

QFT

Just the rock alone is pretty expensive. Even if you do your research, stuff (fish, inverts, corals, etc.) will die before you get the hang of it. If you're really unlucky, you make some noob mistake that'll kill your entire tank.

Not to scare you away, reef tanks are gorgeous when done right. I just know it eats the $$$. My husband's has eaten plenty of ours, and it's just a 55 gal.

OP: Cool starfish (brittle or serpent, or whatever). Hope it doesn't eat your other livestock. But it sounds like you keep it well fed.

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real

LOL! Sorry, just geeked out completely there. Reefers are just as insane as computer geeks when it comes to their setups and terminology.

 

[teatime0315]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real

LOL! Sorry, just geeked out completely there. Reefers are just as insane as computer geeks when it comes to their setups and terminology.

LOL'ed when i read "Testicle". Good Laugh thanks

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie
Sorry, just geeked out completely there. Reefers are just as insane as computer geeks when it comes to their setups and terminology.

Haha I remember reading Bingman's technical explanation of the denaturing that occurs during blowoff within the decent of the input tubes of a downdraft skimmer and it's an awesome explanation. (along with the blowoff of NH3 and PO4.)

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: moonbit

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
OP: Looks nice, I'm hoping to setup a reef tank sometime myself

Do LOTS of research and decide VERY carefully what you want beforehand. Reef tanks = ungodly amounts of money. At least certain types (mine) do.

QFT

Just the rock alone is pretty expensive. Even if you do your research, stuff (fish, inverts, corals, etc.) will die before you get the hang of it. If you're really unlucky, you make some noob mistake that'll kill your entire tank.

Not to scare you away, reef tanks are gorgeous when done right. I just know it eats the $$$. My husband's has eaten plenty of ours, and it's just a 55 gal.

OP: Cool starfish (brittle or serpent, or whatever). Hope it doesn't eat your other livestock. But it sounds like you keep it well fed.

Thanks for the advice - I've been planning something like this for quite a while, been reading people's logs of what they've done, reviews on products, etc. and the plan is to setup an 80-100 gallon tank. I think that would be a good size to try and maintain a stable environment with for someone just getting started.

And yes, I'll be prepared for things to go wrong, I don't expect to do it right my first time.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real

LOL! Sorry, just geeked out completely there. Reefers are just as insane as computer geeks when it comes to their setups and terminology.

Probably even more detailed than computer folk, there's quite a bit involved.

 

[mooncancook]

remind me of my saltwater thank I used to have. I had a shrimp (look more like a lobster but small like a shrimp) that digs around under the rocks. I bought a star fish into my tank and that shrimp cut it into pieces.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: mooncancook
remind me of my saltwater thank I used to have. I had a shrimp (look more like a lobster but small like a shrimp) that digs around under the rocks. I bought a star fish into my tank and that shrimp cut it into pieces.

That's because shrimps are mean mofos.

Pistol shrimp have one MEAN claw that can make such a noise it can stun its prey. Some believe the shockwave it creates can fracture the aquarium glass but I think that may be stretching things a bit.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Awesome, I love these types of tanks.

How much did it set you back?

And, PLEASE make a video and post it here of you feeding it with the tongs.

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: teatime0315

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real

LOL! Sorry, just geeked out completely there. Reefers are just as insane as computer geeks when it comes to their setups and terminology.

LOL'ed when i read "Testicle". Good Laugh thanks

*Looks over original post* Bloody firefox spell check....

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie
At least yours comes out. I have an actual brown brittle start. After getting it, it took up residence in one of my rocks and hasn't really moved since. I see its testicles poking out now and again.

Now that was funny

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: moonbit

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
OP: Looks nice, I'm hoping to setup a reef tank sometime myself

Do LOTS of research and decide VERY carefully what you want beforehand. Reef tanks = ungodly amounts of money. At least certain types (mine) do.

QFT

Just the rock alone is pretty expensive. Even if you do your research, stuff (fish, inverts, corals, etc.) will die before you get the hang of it. If you're really unlucky, you make some noob mistake that'll kill your entire tank.

Not to scare you away, reef tanks are gorgeous when done right. I just know it eats the $$$. My husband's has eaten plenty of ours, and it's just a 55 gal.

OP: Cool starfish (brittle or serpent, or whatever). Hope it doesn't eat your other livestock. But it sounds like you keep it well fed.

Thanks for the advice - I've been planning something like this for quite a while, been reading people's logs of what they've done, reviews on products, etc. and the plan is to setup an 80-100 gallon tank. I think that would be a good size to try and maintain a stable environment with for someone just getting started.

And yes, I'll be prepared for things to go wrong, I don't expect to do it right my first time.

*Nods* You'd mean 75-110 gallon. The common sizes are 75, 90, 110, 120 gallons around that range. Others are rarer and kind of a pain to find stands for.

Expect to set out $5-7K, possibly more, in any case. Tank and stand will be about $2500. Prices vary depending on location, quality, place of purchase, new, used, etc.

The skimmer is your next vital purchase. Do NOT go cheap on that! I have a Deltec (this one) that while looks expensive is worth every penny. I went through several different, cheaper, makes before, and I WISH I had just spent the money up front. It's a set and forget (and clean), just fantastic quality piece of hardware. You can look into other makes, but Deltec stuff is the best bang for the buck, IMO.

Lighting and circulation pumps depend on what you want to stalk it with. Cheapest tank is just an all fish tank. That way you can have angel fish and other beautiful ones that will nip at/eat corals and such, and you only have to light them enough to see well. At the other end of the spectrum is a high flow, stony coral (SPS) tank demands either metal halide or T5 lighting, and good pumps (possibly a wave box), in addition to various reactors to control calcium and other chemicals in the tank. Variants with soft coals fall in between the two somewhere depending again on how elaborate you want to go.