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My brittle star fell apart. What happened?

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I noticed that my black and white brittle star hasn't been as active as usual recently, and last night I noticed that one of his legs seemed like it had about a half inch piece missing when he was close to the glass. I was a bit worried, but today it got much, much worse. I saw what appear to be 1-2 inch long pieces of brittle star leg all over the tank, some still moving a bit. The main disc had one leg attached but it looked like the top had come open too. It was as if the whole star just fell apart. Could it be from starvation? I have been controlling my feeding more over the last few months, leaving the pumps on while feeding the fish to avoid a ton of uneaten food because of a GHA outbreak. There hasn't been as much food falling down to the bottom for him to go after but I thought he could find it anywhere. He was really aggressive about it in the past. Here are my parameters:

SG 1.025
Temp around 80
Alk 9.6 dkh
Ca 410
Mg 1410
Nitrate 0

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Comments

  1. dread240's Avatar
    Levels look good. I can't really say if it's starvation or not, but it definitely just reminded me to toss some sinking pellets into my tank since it's fishless :-\
  2. fish42002's Avatar
    I had a brittle star fall apart just like your describing. It began to hide a lot when it lost 3 of its legs completely. After about a month though they had all grown back. I think all you can do is wait and see what he does. Mine has been doing very well ever since he regrew all his legs.
  3. melev's Avatar
    It could be a combination of things, and now is being picked upon by opportunistic shrimp. Sometimes they heal, sometimes they don't make it. They do have the power to regenerate and heal, if it isn't too badly progressed.