There really aught to be 3 classes of such similar
stars:
Brittle Star
Brittle Serpent (for lack of a better name)
Serpent Star

The green brittles often sold in pet stores, I would
put under the Brittle Serpent classification.

I would classify brittle stars as being full of
spikes on the legs, and having more spike volume
than leg volume.
I would classify brittle serpent as having a lot of
spikes on the legs, but not as great of a volume of
spike per volume of leg ratio.
I would classify serpent stars as having no spikes
on the legs.


Wayne Sallee




Pszemol wrote on 3/17/2008 10:57 PM:
"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
...
If it's a brittle, and not a serpent, then it's probably not much
risk, but brittle stars are quite good at catching live brine shrimp
to eat.

What are the characteristic features of a brittle star
to distinguish it from a serpent star?
I have one black star caught in Hawaii and I am not sure if it is
brittle or serpent.
It *is* brittle - it lost a leg when I cought it, but
it regrown it pretty quickly when in the tank.
It seems like it intentionally sacrifice the leg
in the efford to escape from me, the predator ;-)