Hi,
This is my first post. 8)
I bought a couple of Red Starfishes from my LFS a few weeks ago. I noticed one starfish had an infection that was on the ends of some of it's arms. I came to know that this was necrosis. It was eating up the arm like gangrene. So I thought to best solution is to amputate 8O .
My Red Starfish
Necrosis of arm (Does not look pretty :? )
The infection was on 4 it's 6 arms so I cut off the infected parts and remarkably the arms started to grow back. I noticed a few days ago that necrosis was affecting one of arms again so performed the procedure again.
These are treatment steps I took:
Note: I'm not a vet nor an expert and don't claim that all or any of the following steps are the proper procedure for treatment of necrosis.
- Tools
a- Plastic plate.
b- Cutting tool: a sharp knife, blade ... etc (use an alcohol swap to disinfect the tool)
c- Malachite green or Iodine to disinfect the wound
d- cotton buds
Step one:
Fill the plastic plate with aquarium water enough to cover the starfish when you place it in for treatment. (Exposing a Red Starfish to air is detrimental to its health)
Step Two:
Disinfect the infected area with Malachite green or Iodine using the cotton buds. Make sure you don't allow the Malachite green or Iodine to spread to other part of the starfish.
Step Three:
Cut off the infected part. Make sure you have a clean cut a little bit behind the infection. You will need to apply force since the starfish has a calcium skeleton and is not easy to cut.
Step Four:
Disinfect the fresh wound as in above.
Step Five:
Rinse the starfish in new aquarium water and quickly place it back in a safe place in the tank.
That's all.
