My ricordea ate a mini brittle star!

Abarnswell

New Member
I just peaked in on my reef this morning and saw a pretty gross sight (at least it was gross to me!). One of my precious little mini brittle stars is stuck inside the mouth of a ricordea mushroom. The star's disc and presumably a few of its legs are inside the mouth, two legs are sticking out of the mouth, but are not moving at all. I think the star is dead, gobbled up by a ricordea. How did that happen!!? Those ricordea are so slow to eat, I wonder why the little mini star couldn't get away. ??

I can actually see the star's disc embedded inside the ricordea's mouth. Gross! I love those little mini stars. I have a bazillion of them, and at night, some of them crawl on the glass. Very cool to see.
 

Abarnswell

New Member
It's official. I just looked again, and the star fish is all but gone. Only the tips of two starfish legs are sticking out of the ricordea's mouth. The rest is in the ricordea. The weird thing is that this is a really small ricordea. Where did it find room to store a mini brittle star?

I'll bet he's one happy ricordea now! He just ate a month's worth of food.
 

Jennie

New Member
You should have gotten a picture of that! The only thing I can think of is that the star might not have been very healthy, other wise it should have been able to get away from the ricordea.
 
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