Wounded starfish

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Fierro Nights

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
211
Location
Texas
I got a sterpant starfish the other day, it has been hanging out in the cave w/ my fire shrimp for the past few days and exploring at night. today i was told that my fire shrimp was picking at it, i thought nothing of it as the fire shrimp picks at my fish and crabs, i guess looking for food. but later on i saw my starfish running over my plants so i was going to move him when i noticed his side had a big piece of meat hanging.

i counted all of his arms, none where gone, in between two of his arms he has a tear, right now i have him in my sump/fuge and placed cut tubing to keep him from going trough the bubble traps.

what could have done this? im thinking that it was my fire shrimp, or my hermit crab, but the crab is really small and keeps to himself, the shrimp goes all over the place.

i got the fire shrimp because i heard that the banded shrimp may eat my buddies later when it gets bigger, was i wrong?

do fire shrimps attack and kill? im hoping the star recovers, i just finished installing a nitrate reactor and new carbon, is there anything i can add to the tank to aid in its recovery?
 
Keep pristine water conditions. Fire shrimp are cleaners so I doubt he would go after a live animal (unless it tries to move in on his territory). It's possibly the star may have gotten caught in one of your intakes, or stuck between a chunk of rock that may have shifted.
 
my rock is not light enough to move, and my intakes, he'd have to swim up to my over flow.

is there any gel type substance i can put on it like a liquid band aid for fish?
 
here are a couple of pics, the hole in between two of the legs w/ a thin brown organ or so being exposed. i turned on the light to take the picture but for now i have light off in the fuge in till he recovers more.

img_896139_0_b18ac92c00293e6bee6b07b5026714d4.jpg
img_896139_1_a855b3ec9fe102dde12467cb7293d19f.jpg
 
Wow, that's a lot bigger than I was thinking. Do you have a QT?
 
no i don't have a qt tank, i have it in my sump right now.

ive had it for 4 days now, i got it along w/ a scooter blenny who is also changing.

the starfish was fine last night, i hand fed it a piece of shrimp, i think it was attacked by my shrimp.

kH 8, ph 8 or 8.1, salinity 1.024. nitrate is somewhere between 20 and 40, ammonia, nitrite 0.

and my blenny, well, last night all i saw was his eyes poking out of the sand, he has now started to bury himself at night and his face has turned darker and is developing a glowing blue violet speckles on his face, it looks amazing but he didnt look that way at the store, he looked more tan at the store.

the camera on the phone is not so great but you can make out some of the purple/blue on its face.

img_896181_0_2295c62e8a45b97ead65e966244eb9ff.jpg
 
so its been a few days now, the starfish is still alive, the hole seems to be closing up and the dead tissue hanging from it is gone, some of its insides are still exposed but i think they are starting to form the new outside tissue. i ate this morning, i fed it a mix of blood worms, mysis, and enriched brine shrimp. ill be keeping it in my sump untill it heals up.
 
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