brittle ate my clam

[jesse'sgirl]

So we found one of our clams half dead. It was moved into the rock work about 3 months ago. We have 5 clams in the tank and no others were harmed, they were all in the sand bed.... I noticed its flesh retreading and i picked it up. I found one of my large brittles eating the foot.

So we are not sure if the star killed and ate it or if it was just eating dying flesh..Any thoughts

 

[dakota9]

Brittle Stars are opportunistic predators, at least the larger ones anyways....

I've seen them first hand pop a large snail from it's shell, no reason a clam would be any different.

I think they are evil, But then again, I say the same thing about circus clowns, so don't just take my word for it.....

 

[mvm]

Dead or dying and eaten by brittle.

 

[jesse'sgirl]

i do have a 16" red serpeant also, i think they killed it from the foot up. the largest brittle we have is like 12 inches across. the ones in the sand were fine..

i dont know, my vote is they are evil also once they get so big

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Dakota9;714479 wrote: Brittle Stars are opportunistic predators, at least the larger ones anyways....

I've seen them first hand pop a large snail from it's shell, no reason a clam would be any different.

I think they are evil, But then again, I say the same thing about circus clowns, so don't just take my word for it.....

Youve sen brittle stars pull snails from the shell? Brittles dont have tube feets, so Im not sure I understand how theyd do that.

MvM;714482 wrote: Dead or dying and eaten by brittle.

agreed 10000000% dont blame the star. Its doing its job.