DSB swap

[jessie]

well last night i managed a swap from an UGF with CC to a DSB. it went pretty smooth. all my fish are swimming in their regular patterns. all the shrimp are out messing around. the water is still a bit cloudy. i managed to capture about a dozen pods from the cc and put them back into the tank, but i couldnt find any more than that, hopefully there were a bunch in the live rock. i put a bunch of cc in nylons and put 4 of the nylon balls into my tank to help seed the sand. havnt bought any live sand yet but might get a couple scoops from the ls monday. i bought aboout 150 pounds of old castle sand to use but i think i only got about 90 pounds of it in there. it is about 4 inches deep. will a brittle star actually dig into the sand, or do they just stir the top of it up. i have some small live rock that i pilled up for the shrimp to hang out in and i was wondering if the star woud dig under enough to possibley tuble the rock. i know he cant for the big rocks but i have around 6 very small pieces that make up around 2 lbs. any chance he will burrow and nock these over? he is about 10 inches from tip to tip. just wouldnt want to lose any cleaner shrimp from getting stuck in betwwen falling rock. never had a star before so i really dont know what to they can and cant topple. well thanks for the help.

 

[OrionGirl]

I've never seen the serpent/brittle stars dig too much in the sand--they move around a bit, but not really enough to be destructive, IME. Nothing like the damage a digging fish can do, anyway.

 

[gbolton]

Even my sandsifting star that really buries himself doesnt go under the rock work. Now a large dragon goby can cause avalances of live rock.

 

[mogurnda]

I would just add that there are brittle stars that live under rocks. A couple came in with the rock or sands that have grown to decent size (maybe 4" legs, never seen the body) that have burrowed under the rocks. The legs are very skinny, and a bit spiny, and explore the world without the body ever leaving the little cave under the rock. I have never seen any sign that the rocks are destabilized, though.

Then there's the dozens of little stars that dwell among the larger sand grains and shell rubble. They don't really burrow, just slink between the grains.

On the other hand, the serpent star moves through the crannies between and within the rocks, and has never shown any interest in digging.

 

[jessie]

well mine actually dug out a hole under a rock. took its arms and pushed the sand out from under it for a place to hide. wouldnt be so bad if it stayed there, but right now i dont know whaere it is. it left that spot last night and now theres a little cave where he was. just didnt know if it would dig like that all the time. but i did just switch to a dsb so maybe he is just exploring the new tank and will quit digging after a while. well thanks for the help.