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Old 02-01-2004, 07:33 PM   #1
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Basket Starfish

Two nights ago, I added a basket starfish to my tank. He was a beautiful, healthy looking star, with arms a good eigth to nine inches long. I thawed some mysis shrimp and target fed him a couple hours after acclimating him and adding him to the tank. To all appearances he seemed to be eating just fine. Last night when I came home from work, I was suprised to find him squirming about on the rock I placed him on, instead of curled up in a ball like I expected since the lights were on. However he didn't appear unhealthy so I left him alone. Then I got home today....

Sometime while I was at work he decided to fall apart. I looked in the tank and found him scattered about his corner in pieces. On his body, around the stubs of his arms I found a white tissue like substance. Some of his arms that "came off" are in several peices while a couple others are whole. And all the pieces are squirming around at the bottom of the tank. Any help at all is very much appreciated!

Oh, and it is possible he was attacked but I find it unlikely. The only fish I have currently are a chocolate perc, a lyretailed chromis, and a spotted mandarin.

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Old 02-01-2004, 07:42 PM   #2
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This sounds like acclimation problems. Mobile inverts and starfish inparticular are very sensitive to changes in ph, temp and salinity. I recommend a minimum of 4-6 hour drip (very slow drip) acclimation for most starfish and 8 hours for some. The worst part is, even if you acclimate properly, the LFS may have simply dumped the starfish and it takes a couple of days to a week for acclimation problems to surface. So with that said, how did you acclimate the star?
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Old 02-01-2004, 08:19 PM   #3
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I did the drip acclimation, but only for about 2 hours. The starfish had JUST arrived at the LFS the night before as well, so it sounds like he might quite possibly gone from one bad acclimation to another. I take it once his arms start falling off his chances of survival are very, very slim huh? Thanks much for the quick reply Reefrunner69.
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Old 02-01-2004, 08:53 PM   #4
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I take it once his arms start falling off his chances of survival are very, very slim huh?
Yep, it's pretty slim, but sill a chance.
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