somthing is eating my orange linka starfish help

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troutman11111

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i have two,one looks like it has been eatin by somthing. the tips are black. this one looks like it has been on someones menu. anyone ever seen this before?
 
Looks like it could be acclimation shock unless you have suspect fish and inverts as well as other stars.

If not acclimated slowly enough, stars can show signs of "necrosis" as quickly as the next day or even several months later.

How long have you had the star?
How was it acclimated?
Other tankmates/hitchikers?

Cheers
Steve
 
Do you have any harlequin shrimp? JK, im thinkin acclimation problems, they need like 6 hours or more
 
no,camel shrimp. got the 2 of them 1 month ago. the other one is fine. 15 min float,15min with8oz of tank water,then mixing bag water and tank water slowly releasing them on the sand bottom, all with the star under water because it can not touch air. they are chunks takin off the star now. my sallylightfoot crab maybe. perc clowns 2, my purple tang,and my wife thinks its my 6yr old electric damsel.
 
I go with acclimation. As d9hp stated Starfish need to be acclimated for many hours. They are very sensitive to pH & salinty changes. Try the drip method & if the water in the bucket will not stay the same temp. as in your tank you can put a heating pad under the bucket to help maintain the temp. Just dont let the bucket overflow. I used this method to acclimate my Abalone for four hours and had no problems. The drip method is a peice of airline tubing placed in the tank with a knot to adjust your drip and into your bucket. Run it at about 1-3 drops per second.
This how I do all my fish both S/W & F/W along with corals Etc. My past experince with starfish was the same as yours, I was not able to save the starfish.

Hope this helps with future stock
John
 
you guys are right stars are supposed to be near impossible to acclimate, but once- and i'm not sure this happens often or the star was alrdy dead, but once in a fish store i saw 2 hermit crabs eating a blue linkia.- maybe it was alrdy dead i've never heard of that happening besides seeing it that one time.
 
EMS503 i do not know this drip method,please explain .what is different from letting the bag float 6hours? there is hardly any arms left on the 1 star,my 2nd one is showing the starting signs now. should i take them out now and shove them up petcos butt, or just take them out and save my nitrate hike. i never was told, those poor starfish. :(
 
the difference between dripping and letting it float for 6 hours is that dripping will slowly make the chemistry in the bag the same as the chemistry in your tank.. floating it for 6 hours just keeps the temperature the same for six hours.. too bad it isn't a harlequin shrimp huh?? i love 'em.. i wished they hitched hike in my tank..
 
Troutman just like sokhamik said this will equal the chemistry between the shipping water and your tank slowly, and allow the new inhabitants to adjust to the tanks pH,salinity,etc.

steve-s good article explains it well. I put it in my favorites for future posts.

John
 
i put it mine to. thanks steve. i have a kent aqua dose to, if i had only known. so what should i do with these 1 1/4 starfish?the other one is following suite. :(
 
This is just my opinion, But I truly believe they are dieing a slow death. If they were mine I would put them to sleep in ice water to stop there suffering.
But this is a hard decision you will have to make.

John
 
thanks John. this will be hard to do.but i have learned the drip method and will use it from now on. walt :)
 
The thing that makes me mad (and the reason i will now have to drive for an hour to buy fish) is that the guy at the pet store said starfish need no acclimation. He also said this about my anemone but luckily it didnt die like the starfish.
 
I have a blue Linkia Star fish tha i did not Drip Acclomated that is doing fine. What i did do is make absolutely sure that i did not touch it with my bare hand. The guy at the LFS where i bought him told me that touching it will kill it for sure. I did the sandard float accilmation with adding 1/2 cup of tank water over 2 hours, poured out the water from the bag, and flipped the bag inside out while holding the starfish with the bag, placing him into the tank.
 
If you have had them for a month, and you are just seeing this, then I wouldn't necessarily blame it on acclimation (although I agree with everyone that drip is the best method to use for stars). The damage in the pictures is consistent with deterioration from starvation. Keeping some of the sea stars alive for long periods of time can be tricky even in large mature tanks, and it is quite possible that there is not enough food in your tank to house both of these stars. I had a similar experience with the orange "linckia", and watched it suffer the same fate after a little over a year in the tank :(
 
about the LFS.. some are so interested in selling their fishes that some lie to the point of no excuse.. it's like.. this one time i went to this place i've been a couple of times before but never purchased from.. i over heard him telling a customer that saltwater is actually easier to care for than freshwater, and that all you have to do is change the water the first six months and you never have to change any more... i was like what?? and then what got me even more bugged out is when he said that that is what they do with their fish tanks.. they never change the water.. oh yeah.. he tried to sell me a false perc and pass it off as a maroon clown just to raise the price a little.. and everytime i tell him a fish or invert is dead he says no, it's just sleeping... anyway just wanted to blow off some steam.. hehe..
 
Any aquatic shop that tells you linkias don't need acclimating might be one you want to avoid in the future. I talk more customers out of starfish than I actually sell. Starfish do not handle shipping well at all. If you want to try a starfish in the future I would suggest you have the store hold it for at least one week. Then when you get it home you need to spend a minimum of 1 hour of acclimating time for every 1 point difference your water is from the stores water.
Example: If the stores water reads 1.025 and your water reads 1.023 then you need to drip water in for at least 2 hours. Make sure the water is dripping in very slow at the start of this pprocedure Make sure that the waters test exactly before you release the star into your tank.
Even after all precautions are met for these neat little crcreatureshey are still a chchallengeo keep.
Good luck !
 
Fish, Inverts & corals all need a period of acclimation. As deangmcn41 said you are matching the water chemistry in the bag to your tanks water chemistry.
If not you will shock the item you are putting in your tank and more then likely it will die. Any LFS that told me you don't have to acclimate your new purchases would not see me anymore!!

John
 
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