Choclate Chip Star

[Chris]

Just bought this star, saw it liked it bought it. now lives in a FO tank which was set up and cycled about 2.5 months back, just added the star with 2 blue chromis only other fish is a yellow gobie at the moment all fish OK star moved around fine but has taken up position next to the surface by the outlet from the filter it moves a little but goes back there, is this normal behaviour for this animal.
it is stuck to the glass well and took a little mussel last night much to the chromis's delight, my salt is ok nitrite has risen to 0.2 nitrate is low amonia is 0 can't remember ph but I know is is within the norm, will do a partial water change tonight to drop nitirte to try and make the ride a bit more comfortable for the star until the filter systems catch up to the new stock level. one concern I have is that I now find out they graze on algie, there is not much at all in my tank yet, the star was sold as a carnivore so if I keep an eye on him whats do you think I will get him through this while the algie grows. :?

 

[reefrunner69]

The choclate chip star may graze algae if there is no meaty foods to feed on, but it will prefer meaty foods

star moved around fine but has taken up position next to the surface by the outlet from the filter it moves a little but goes back there, is this normal behaviour for this animal.

Sounds normal enough to me, I suppose if you wanted it off the glass ou could move it to the sand and feed it there every day, it would eventually come to Identify the sand bed with food and stay there.

 

[Chris]

it being on the glass really doesn't bother me, it can live where ever it is happiest, i wonder if it something to do with the filter spray bar, perhaps it likes the current, any way I think I am just being a bit over concerned about it, can't seem to find many people over here in the uK that keep them, I am now scouring websites looking for information on the beast.
It is still moving a bit and it's colour is good, it arms are not curling over so I will go with you and say it's seems alright, what about the nitrite level @ 0.2 do you think that may be a little high, it could just be a short spike as 3 animals where added at the same time.
Thanks any way for the reply much appreciated.

 

[goldy]

we had one and it like to stay at the top where it could feed off the stuff in the jet stream. we also fed it krill and it loved it.ours was a tough little buger it lived through eveything.it was extremlyy hardy but our fish got sick and we didn't have any place to put him and had to treat with copper so he passed away .i loved that little guy.

 

[tkos]

It sounds like the nitrite spike would be caused by the addition of the new fish. Some water changes will really help get things down. Careful if you ever want to add crabs or other critters to the tank as those starfish are good at hunting them down and eating them.

What else is in your tank? I know you said fish only but do you have a sand bed or live rock or anything?

 

[Chris]

No live rock just ocean rock sitting on fine coral gravel, the tank is a Juwel Trigon 190 so I have kept the in tank box filter that they supply with the tank, which is basically a sponge filter system with a power head, the tank also runs an under gravel filter using Rena plates and a power head and an external Fluval 203 with charcoal so there is plenty of current and the whole tank turns over about 10 times per hour, I am going to add a protein skimmer, when I find 1 that fits the juwel.
An up date on the star, it’s still ok moving around the top half of the tank, Nitrite has dropped to 0.1, Nitrate is 7 but Ph has dropped to 8.0?( pre water change) I am assuming that when it becomes hungry it will go foraging or shall I leave it a few days and feed again anyway, what do you think