Starfish question

[leafyseadragon]

I got an orange linckia star Saturday morning. Floated the bag in the tank and drip acclimated him until Sunday at noon. I'm a little paranoid because the first starfish I tried (a fromia) started dying in 24 hours, and that was with an 8 hour drip acclimation. He didn't last week.

Anyway, the starfish shows no signs of stress as far as I can tell. His body is contorted to match the contours of the rock. But there is stringy stuff around him and the rock he is on, where there was none in the tank before. What is this stuff? Plus, he hasn't moved from the rock since I put him in the tank. Is this normal behavior?

[electrikat]

Were you able to keep the temp up in the drip acclimating time? 24+ hours?

[quarryshark]

Were you able to keep the temp up in the drip acclimating time? 24+ hours?

Yes and also, did the PH match?

[leafyseadragon]

Here's what I did:

I floated the bag in the tank and used the algae magnet to hold it in place. I took a 3 gallon jug and placed it above the tank. I put about 3 Big Gulp-sized cups full of water from the tank in the jug, and then dripped water into the bag. Every so often I'd use a turkey baster to remove the water from the bag. And then once the bag was full I emptied half the contents into the bag.

I figure given the small amount of water dripping into the bag floating in the tank, the temp would not be a problem. And since I was doing it slowly, the pH in the bag and the tank would slowly equalize.

I let the jug empty into the bag overnight, of course it overflowed back into the tank. The next morning, I emptied 50% of the water from the bag, started the drip again for another 4 hours. Then I gently placed him on a rock.

I just looked. He's on the move!

[seaham358]

Did you or the LFS touch the linkia with your hands?? Any way to get a pic of what your talking about.

[fishfirst]

linkias shouldn't even be in the average aquarists hands... these guys are expert only... but hopefully you'll have some luck

[quarryshark]

I floated the bag in the tank and used the algae magnet to hold it in place. I took a 3 gallon jug and placed it above the tank. I put about 3 Big Gulp-sized cups full of water from the tank in the jug, and then dripped water into the bag. Every so often I'd use a turkey baster to remove the water from the bag. And then once the bag was full I emptied half the contents into the bag.
I figure given the small amount of water dripping into the bag floating in the tank, the temp would not be a problem. And since I was doing it slowly, the pH in the bag and the tank would slowly equalize.

Not necessarily true. The way you explained it, they water that you were using to drip was from a container. The water sitting stagnant in that container could cause the PH of that water to drop.
The best way to drip acclimate is with water straight from the system and it is always best to test both water's PH to make sure you have a match. PH shock can do in such a delicate animal.
Sound like it worked out OK though.

[leafyseadragon]

quarryshark:

I didn't think about it at the time, but I guess even with tank water dripping into the bag, the pH of the tank water in the jug could drop?

The reason I did it this was that I wanted a very long acclimation, but the tank is in my office and I cannot look at it 24-7. I thought about dripping system water into a bucket like in the Aquarium Advice articles, but then keeping the temperature constant was an issue.

By the way, there a picture of the star in my gallery. This is an orange linkia like the LFS said it was, right?