Star Fish Cannibal

[afilter]

Due to an ich problem in my tank I was forced to remove all my star fish to treat the tank. I placed them (6 at the time) in my 20 gal hospital tank. while there one of my chocolate chip stars ate a smaller common star. Is this normal? I have since started to feed small pieces of frozen shrimp which the stars readily eat.

The ich has cleared up in the display tank and my stars have since rejoined the community once all the medication was filtered out. Should I continue to feed the stars directly. I also feed the two Condys about twice a week the same way. Does anyone have any other ideas, or notice something with my set up I described in my profile that I am doing wrong?

 

[reefobsessed]

From what Ive read CC stars are know for this type of behavior and will eat things in the main tank as well. All post Ive read suggest staying away from this type of star and going with a less aggressive breed.

 

[afilter]

Cannibals strike again. This time another larger common star fish devoured a smaller common. Unless anyone else has some other advice I guess the thing to do would be to make sure star fish are close in size.

 

[jamal-188]

Cannibals strike again. This time another larger common star fish devoured a smaller common. Unless anyone else has some other advice I guess the thing to do would be to make sure star fish are close in size.

Same size starfish will not eliminate this problem unfortunately. There are just some animals that will kill/eat whatever they can, these animals are not very popular to most in this hobby and if they are to be kept tankmates should be chosen wisley. Keeping 6 aggressive stars in a tank is probably just trouble waiting to happen.

 

[afilter]

Interesting development, last night I noticed two small sperate legs crawling up the side of my tank(kind of creepy). Is it possible that these can grow into two new complete starfish? Should I remove them to QT?

 

[steve-s]

Is it possible that these can grow into two new complete starfish? Should I remove them to QT?

It is possible but not likely unless the disembodied legs retained some portion of the mouth (central disc). Most will linger awhile and eventually die from lack of food...

Cheers
Steve