|
|
|
For the Love of Gobies |
||
| I walked back and forth, tank to tank, cube
to cube, searching for something that would catch my eye. I did
find a few things that were interesting and bright, but what caught my
eyes first were the starfish. It was time for another lesson, and
Rob was to be the teacher once again. I needed to know what my
options were for adding a starfish to my tank. I had found a
really pretty and small green starfish with small needle like appendages
covering it almost entirely. When I pointed it out, Rob said
"that's a brittle star, and that would work fine." There
were so many to choose from, but I kept going back to that one.
One other caught my eye...it was bright orange and looked like a cartoon
version of an octopus. That, I was told, was a serpent star, and
would also be compatible, but size was a problem. This starfish
was rather large, while my goby and damsels were still pretty
small. I feared this star would outgrow my tank too soon, so I
decided to wait until there was a smaller one available. I had
room for two starfish, and I really wanted another, so I decided on
another brittle star. This one was a burgundy brittle starfish to
go with the green one.
Although both are brittle starfish, there is much difference between them other than color. The spines on the burgundy star are thicker at the ends, and it is also much more nocturnal and shy than the green one. The color patterns that they display is also different. At feeding time the green brittle star actually appears to run to the front of the tank, snatching up it's food boldly and quickly. The burgundy brittle star remains hidden among the rock, seemingly waiting for the food to come to it. Very seldom does the burgundy brittle star venture out into the open at all, light or dark seems not to matter. the green brittle appears to spend more of it's time wandering and exploring the tank, searching for cover only when disturbed by me and my tank maintenance or the fish. |
So this trip home brought two small starfish and a few snails to help me with a bit of the algae that has begun to grow on the glass. | |