sick starfish

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Rodger

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Messages
7
Location
Wichita, KS
I have a starfish (not sure what kind), that has been in our 100 gallon tank for over a year. He has done fine until about two months ago when his legs started getting shorter. It looked like the tips were either being eaten off or rotting off. Now all of the tips are losing skin and showing the pink flesh underneath. Does anyone know what this is and what to do about it?
 
What are your tank parameters , have there been any drastic changes
check ammonia , phosphates alk ect

A lot of stars seem to starve this can be a possibility loosing flesh is a good detection

exposed to air could be another thought

these are all possibility that are popping into my head

Salinity is it high or low
 
The water quality in the tank has been pretty stable every time we have checked it. We have done that two or three times since the starfish arms started getting shorter. No exposure to air either. I can do another water analysis but in the past that has not seemed to be a problem.
 
Sadly, once a starfish start to fall apart like this there isn't much hope of recovery. I would be concerned about the parameters or air contact, even at the store. They are also very sensitive to chemicals, so products like red slime remover can be of harm towards them.
 
All inverts are very sensitive to water quality this why I mentioned it

Have you done anything different to the tank in the last few weeks sit back and think as we all do this , I would remember the big stuff but the small things we don't think makes a difference sometimes does make the difference
I keep logs for everything I do so when I start to see a decline I can basically pin point it knowing when it started along what I did in that time period all this info helps find the problem ,
hate saying this once stars start to decline there's no coming back
 
Good advice. I will have to try to get into my memory banks and see what we might have done differently. I can't remember if it coincides exactly with the starfish decline but one thing I did about the time that this started was replace an urchin that died. Don't know if there is any connection to it dying or with the introduction of a new one. Since the starfish started having problems I have introduced yet another urchin and another starfish. All three seem to be doing well. Thanks for the advice. I'll see if I can remember anything else that might have upset the starfish stability.
 
Like hank also mentioned about if any type chemicals including anything that may have been dosed ,
have you or anyone used Windex on or around the tank, even air fresheners that squirt/spray if it got into the water it can cause damage
as odd as it may sound these can also cause things to die off
unknown reasons inverts die are usually do to water issues
you need to learn how to read your inverts , coral , and fish you would be surprised how much they can tell you
 
We know there is a problem but haven't been able to isolate it. We have had coral and anemones die, and a few fish along the way. We have had the water analyzed several times, replaced all the bulbs with new. As far as I know no one has used any chemicals to clean the glass. Water changes are done regularly. Hmmmm, I guess we just keep searching. No doubt it needs just the right tweak and we haven't found it yet. Thank you all for your help.
 
How much and often do you feed? If the export of nutrients can't keep up with the input of them this can be part of what is going on. How big of water changes do you do weekly?
 
It could have been that it finally ran out of food. That would be my first guess since it's been in the tank for a long time. It might have taken a while for it's food supply to totally diminish.
 
Seems everyone is on the same trail gives you a direction to investigate


We know there is a problem but haven't been able to isolate it. We have had coral and anemones die, and a few fish along the way. We have had the water analyzed several times, replaced all the bulbs with new. As far as I know no one has used any chemicals to clean the glass. Water changes are done regularly. Hmmmm, I guess we just keep searching. No doubt it needs just the right tweak and we haven't found it yet. Thank you all for your help.


Not sure I'm reading this right or not , you said you had water analyzed
Does that mean you don't have a test kit , if not I highly recommend you get one,
having a test kit handy helps you see whats wrong on the spot not (oh maybe I'll get there Friday mean while it may be Monday) don't take that personal it was a example , waiting to find out whats not right can be a big mistake , nothing saltwater is cheap no one needs to loose anything
 
The water quality in the tank has been pretty stable every time we have checked it. We have done that two or three times since the starfish arms started getting shorter. No exposure to air either. I can do another water analysis but in the past that has not seemed to be a problem.


Can't really help with out numbers. But I was thinking along the same line as Mr X, stars can be difficult to keep long term as there are several species that we don't know for certain what they eat.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice
 
Being a keeper of stars over the years, my guess would be what MR X said. They eat microbes in the tank and once they are gone then they starve to death and then fall apart.
 
I finally was able to get a good photo of my sick starfish but I can't figure out how to upload it to this reply. Sorry to be so dense but it is asking me for the URL of my photo and I don't have a URL for it. It is in a file in my computer. If someone can tell me how to upload it I will post it so you can see the starfish.
Thanks
 
You can also go to your profile page and upload it there to your album and then copy the image link and post it on this thread.
 
Ok I posted three photos of my sick starfish in my profile. I am not sure how this works but I assume anyone can go to my profile and look at them. He is in pretty bad shape but he just keeps going.
 
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