HELP!! 2 starfish eating each other... blue starfish got leg eaten off.... HELP!!!

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will the blue starfish live??

  • yes

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • no

    Votes: 6 60.0%
  • maybe

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • no guess

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

wishin4juicy

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
7
Location
Memphis
so i have a blue starfish and a chocolate chip starfish in the same tank. they have been doing completely fine with each other for the past 2 or 3 weeks. but when i came home from dinner last night the chocolate chip starfish was on top of part of the blue starfish's leg and had his stomach out and wrapped around his leg trying to eat it. i immediately removed the chocolate chip starfish and the blue starfish seemed to do fine and was moving around. when i got up this morning the part of the leg that was slightly injured looking from being eaten was falling off and by the afternoon it was completely gone. i figured that was his way of amputation. well, i went into my room and noticed the chocolate chip starfish was trying to eat the blue starfish's leg where he had the "open wound" from self amputation. so now there is his white insides streaming from it where i pulled the chocolate chip star off. is the blue one going to be okay??? would he be okay if the chocolate chip star leaves him alone? is there any hope at all?!?! the blue one seems to be fine other than the missing leg and insides falling out slightly.... PLEASE HELP ME!!!
 
Now im no saltwater expert (mostly because i stick to freshwater like white on rice) and sorry if im just being stupid and too blunt but what are you feeding them and are you sure they are both getting enought to eat? Because if the choco chip one isent getting enough to eat isent it a classic case of my im not getting enought food so ima go eat my neighbor.
Also dont starfish regenarate right? So if you make sure the choco chip starfish dosent start noming at the blue starfishes wound wont it heal? Do you have a QT you could keep it in or something?
 
No QT tank at the moment as I've never had a reason for one before. But yes they do regenerate and I figured that's what he'd do until the other one is making him worse for wear. And to answer your other question, yes the chocolate chip star is getting tons to eat. I put seaweed in the aquarium on a clip on the wall daily and he eats my 3 inch long pieces each day plus eats algae off the glass...so that shouldn't be his problem. I believe he's just a glutton on the eating thing.
 
Yeah fish can be like that sometimes. . . What about size is the choco chip one bigger than the other one i know they dont have brains but maybe its a teritorial thing. Also i looked up that muceles and other molousks are on their main diet list. Maybe he isent geting enough shellfish and decided to go to the next best thing.
 
The begin with, your tank is grossly overstocked. Having 12 fish, including a regal tang, in a 30g tank is not a wise decision. A choc chip star is not reef safe and linckia stars usually starve to death since no one knows exactly what they eat. Some people are able to keep linckia's in large, very well established systems, but that's not normally the case and a 30g is not a large system.
Chances for the linckia surviving are slim to none....unfortunately.
 
I too agree that you have too much in a 30 gallon tank. It could be that your blue licknia is on the way out which is why the CC atar was on him. I had a blue licknia for 4 yrs so I know a little about it. They are very suseptible to high nitrates which your tank must have with all that in such a small tank. Can you post some water test results?
 
Well the chocolate chip star has never harmed my corals an I've had the coral and him for years. He actually never gone near them. The blue star is a little larger than the chocolate chip and I feed the blue star crab meet and he's been doing very well. I've had my tank for over 3 years and I tested the water before buying one and it was in the normal parameters. Also, all the fish were bought very small. For example the blue regal is about the size of a quarter. We are setting up a larger tank in the den for when the fish get larger and need more room. The blue star's leg is healing up and he's still moving around and eating whatever I give him.... Hoping for the best!
 
As I dont discount you experience it will happen eventually. I had some dwarf angels in my reef and they were model citizens for 4 yrs. Then all of a sudden they went to munching on my corals. The same will happen to your CC star. You`ve been lucky so far.
 
agreed. way overstocked and the blue linckia will not survive. CC stars are known to eat other inverts, as well as corals.
but there is more bad news- your mandarin and scooter blennies are going to starve to death as well.
and your hippo tang is going to stress until his immune system is so low that some disease will overcome him.
 
Why would my scooter blenies and mandarin die?? They've been doing okay thus far.... And the regal is very very small right now. He should be fine for right now, but I know when he gets larger he will definitely need more swimming room which is why we are getting a second larger aquarium.
 
how long is "thus far"?
mandarins and scooters eat the same thing-pods. you definitely don't have enough pods to sustain 1 of them, let alone 3. even if you add a bottle of store bought pods a day, they will still starve.
 
There's no way to tell if something is going to die until it does. You still have a chance at the star fish at living. Don't worry, if it's healing, it may still be healthy enough to live. I'm not saying it gonna die because at the moment, it's living. You can't compare your own incidents and how long your animals lived to how long you think someone else's will live. Good luck with the starfish!
 
There's no way to tell if something is going to die until it does. You still have a chance at the star fish at living. Don't worry, if it's healing, it may still be healthy enough to live. I'm not saying it gonna die because at the moment, it's living. You can't compare your own incidents and how long your animals lived to how long you think someone else's will live. Good luck with the starfish!
and by that, I'm talking to others. You don't know what the starfish looks like and if it's going to live. Stop saying it's gonna die. Do your dance when it does in 3 years.
 
They have been here for a couple of months. The mandarincruises the bottom, glass, and rocks picking at and eating things and the scooters eat marine pellets, seaweed, and things outta the sand. I also added a bottle of copepods a while ago and they hopefully multiplied for the mandarin.

And to SnailySophi, thank you for the confidence and the optimisim! I'm hoping my experience will be different as well! =]
 
Unless the mandarin is eating prepared food IT IS GOING TO DIE.
A 30 gallon tank cannot produce enough pods unless it is supplemented by a very large refugium. That's just a fact. Oh, you could also try adding a bottle of pods every day, because mandarins eat hundreds per day.

The previous posts have given you good information. Research the livestock you have and you will find that you should follow the advice from those on this forum who have been keeping successful tanks for years.
 
I wasn't saying they weren't correct. I just know that each individual fish differs even within that species. For example I've had a tank for years and my chocolate chip star has never eaten coral but I'm not saying that they don't, that other people's haven't, or that mine won't decide too. I was just simply saying mine hasn't. Neither has more coral beauty and if it does begin eating coral I can remedy that. I believe what everyone says and I've done research and seen that it's true, I'm just adding my personal experience with my aquarium that I've had for years. I appreciate all the information given! =]
 
There's no way to tell if something is going to die until it does. You still have a chance at the star fish at living. Don't worry, if it's healing, it may still be healthy enough to live. I'm not saying it gonna die because at the moment, it's living. You can't compare your own incidents and how long your animals lived to how long you think someone else's will live. Good luck with the starfish!

Not a very wise statement. You are talking about 40-50 yrs of SW experience between the posters on this thread. These folks have alot of knowledge and experience and can pretty well tell you what most likely will happen. Yes there is the rare moment that the unpredictable happens. But those times are very few and far between. We all have seen thread after thread of people that ignored good information and suffered the consequences. You dont know how many times we have mentioned to people that their tanks are overstocked but they had their mind made up that they were going to do what the wanted. Then the next thing you know there is a thread titled "Why are my fish dead". I`m not talking about Wishin. It sounds like he really does appreciate the info. Good luck on the tank Wishin.
 
yes, i'd love to hear we were proved wrong. meanwhile, the scooters still eat pods along with their prepared foods. they are depleting the pod population for the mandarin. maybe the scooters will live, but it will take months for the mandarin to starve.
 
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