starfish under attack

[jayfish]

i have a bluestar and there seems 2 be a bristle-worm inside the track of his tentacles its been there since last night could this be slowly eating him or just hichhiking on him is there any way of geting him of without hurting my star. thanks in advance.

 

[Fluff]

I think what you are seeing is actually part of the starfish.

 

[Fluff]

Also, I wanted to add, when this starts, in my experience, it's not a good thing. It's followed by the linkia melting/dieing. :?

 

[jayfish]

u mean its not a bristleworm it sure looks like one 2 me is it a disease can i save him, i do have a lot of bristles geting arond my tank as my fish r in qt from whitespot.

 

[Fluff]

No, I'm almost possitive it isn't bristleworms. Bristleworms are scavangers and not likely to attack the star. I'll see if I can find a pic of what I'm talking about and post back.

 

[Fluff]

Here is a pic of the glands in question. These glands help with digestion. I know I read on here in another post that they use these frilly glands to expel wastes as well. Hopefully that is what yours is doing. I'd keep watch though. Mine did this, went down behind the lr and was never seen again.

http://www.esu.edu/~milewski/intro_biol_two/lab__13_echinoderm/starfish_pylor_ceca.html

 

[MT79]

The only reason I can see for bristles to "attack" the star is if the star has already started to melt down. Blue Linckia right? How long have you had the star? How did you acclimate it to your tank? How old, what size is your tank? How much LR? FWIW, Blue Linckia are extremely sensitive to any water changes ie. SG, ph, etc.

 

[jayfish]

i have had him about 12 months, the tank is about 15 months old, blue has been travelling around plenty and is eating heaps, he looks otherwise healthy, no recent stresses to him and he is eating whitebait and prawns as my eel keeps refusing to eat, i leave it there a few hours and blue linkia is on it for about 12 hours and eats most of it. This worm is orange and stands out from the tentacles quite a bit.

 

[Fluff]

Maybe this shows it better. The glands are orange/fleshy colored and feathered in texture.

It would be the pyloric ceca
http://www.vsf.cape.com/~jdale/science/digest.htm

If it is in fact a bristleworm or two, like already stated, your star is probably dying.

 

[MT79]

i have had him about 12 months

Then acclimation is not an issue.

and he is eating whitebait and prawns a

Are you sure it is a blue LINCKIA star not a Fromia or some other type of star? Blue Linckia stars eat bacterial films, etc. not large meaty foods. Also, it is recommended to keep blue linckias w/ plenty of LR as that is the only way they can be nourished properly. They don't accept target feedings, they are picky specialized feeders. FWIW, Linckias can live for months before succumbing to dietary insufficiencies. Do you have LR? How much? A pic or detailed description would help identify the star for sure.

 

[jayfish]

yes about 45 kilos live rock. here is a pic, sorry about the quality im not a photographer, also is another pic here of him eating prawn yesterday.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissamurray/22705675/

 

[jayfish]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissamurray/22711393/

i caught it. I shined a torch on it to take a pic, and the worm got very irritated running around in the tracks then i moved blue off the glass, he retracted his tentacles and i tried to brush off the worm, it came off and i caught it. blue looks pretty good to me( please look at other pics at this link to view the chase and the worm after he was removed. ) Not to be wasteful i fed the worm to my trigger(in another tank) as i no longer trusted it in this tank.

 

[Fluff]

That has to be the strangest thing I've ever heard. Glad you got him. Hopefully your star will be ok.

 

[jayfish]

24 hours later my star is doing well has eatn 2 fresh prawns doesnt look damaged or stressed