SS Starfish

[skipper]

I recently bought a SS starfish. He seemed to be doing fine until yesterday. After the lights went out and he came out of the sand, I noticed that he was missing about 1/4in from one of his legs and on another a 1in piece was just barely hanging on. This morning when I checked on him, the 1in piece had been completely disconnected. Any idea what might be doing this?

He is housed with a yellow-tail damsel, a dozen snails and 2 hermit crabs. All water parameters are good. TIA

 

[superswamper]

IMO, it could be an acclimation issue. How did you acclimate?

If he's in your 55g, the tank could be a little on the small side for his liking.

 

[skipper]

I acclimated by adding about 8oz of tank water every 30 mins for 2 hours (after water temps where the same). If his loosing of limbs was caused by acclimation, is he in trouble our will he regenerate them?

Mine is in the 55. 55g on small side? That sucks. Guy at LFS told me he has one in his 10gal nano at home.

 

[reefrunner69]

Starfish are VERY sensitive to changes in salinity, temp and ph. I recommend a drip acclimation for starfish of several hours. If the starfish can recover from the acclimation, it may regenerate the missing limbs, what is more common is that it continues to drop pieces of itself and gets a bacterial infection and dies.

 

[skipper]

Well, he hasn't lost anymore limbs, but he is not looking good. Guess only time will tell.

 

[Oafboy182]

When I got my SS seastar for my 29 gal over a year ago all i did to acclimate him was float him in the tank for 30 min then dumped him in. He is still alive and doing very well. You might just have a sick seastar.

 

[Enygma_0]

Well I bought a SS seastar about 1.5 weeks ago. I originally had some issues with him only staying on the glass. Just recently he has been going in the sand though. Hopefully all will stay well with him.

 

[4enzix]

your fine with him in your 55 ... hes not got too much competition for food.. he should grow his legs back... may be just stressed from the acclimation if there was too much of a difference in the water... ur nitrite and stuff is all low correct?

 

[skipper]

All levels are good.

nitrate, ammonia & nitrite = 0
sg = 1.023
ph = 8.2
temp = 80
alk & ca levels good too, but I dont remember what they were.

 

[revhtree]

I have a new serp star, that I noticed has lost part of a leg. My water parimeters are fine.