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Sea Star Air Exposure
2/8/12
Sea Star Help...but what kind?
4/26/07 Hello, <Hi.> I'll start off with some specs:
<Okay.> 29 Gallon FOWLR <A bit cramped for most sea-stars.>
30lbs Live rock My levels are: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10 ppm <Needs to be lower.> S. Gravity: 1.022 <Needs
to be higher for invertebrate life...1.024 at least.> pH: 8.2 I
purchased a red sea star from LiveAquaria.com the other day and
received it yesterday. <What species?> After about an hour of
drip acclimating it, I finally decided it was ready to be
put into the tank. <No quarantine?.. and I prefer to
acclimate Seastars longer, they are very sensitive to differences in
water quality.> Everything seemed well, but when I woke up this
morning it looks as if all its insides have come out. <Not good.>
I looked up the articles on starfish but I really didn't know what
to search for with this. It is still alive and moving, but
why has everything "fallen" out of it? <Hard
to say without knowing what species this is...> Its only tankmates
are a Percula Clown and a Serpent Sea Star which hasn't even come
near it as far as I can see, it tends to stay in its cave at the
complete opposite side of the tank. Is this normal? <See
above comment^^.> I'm rather new to the hobby and my tank is
only about 6 months old, but it doesn't seem like
something that would be normal for anything, to have its guts fall
out. <Good be a reaction to the shift in water quality;
I would like to give you a more detailed answer but first shoot me a
response with the species (Latin/scientific...if you have it) name.
Should be on the LiveAquaria site or on your invoice.> Thank you,
Brittani Cyano problems and problematic stars
6/14/06 Dear Crew <Hi> I'm having a pretty big problem
with Cyanobacteria. My phosphates are high, so I'm
currently using PhosGuard to try to bring it down. <Check
for the source as well, better to never have it in the tank than try to
remove it later.> Other than phosphates, ammonia and
nitrites were 0, nitrates were 15, and ph was 8.0. <PH is a little
low, but not to bad.> A marine biologist at a local fish
store said to put a dose of erythromycin in the tank to kill the Cyano
and then to vacuum it out along with a water change. She
also told me to put snails and a Sandsifter starfish in the tank to eat
the organics and detritus in the substrate, and to help aerate
it. Unfortunately, I woke up the next day to find all of the
snails and the starfish dead. This brings me to my first
question: Are there any flaws in my plan of attack against this
Cyano? <Oh yeah. Erythromycin, along with
killing the Cyano, will also kill most of your biological filtration,
leading to a whole bunch of problems.> I don't want
to do anything harmful to my fish or not do enough so that it comes
back. <Will come back as long as it has a food source and
PO4 as fertilizer.> I also want to know, what does a starfish look
like when it is dead? I heard they get soft and
jelly-like. <Sometimes> My starfish definitely is not
soft. It is quite hard actually. I believe it is
dead because it did not move once since I purchased it last
night. This morning, when I lifted it up to see if there was
any movement from its structures underneath, I noticed a lime
green/yellow on the sand where it was laying. <Not good.> The
starfish did not bury itself at all or move to a new
location. Even though it is not soft, is my starfish dead?
<Could be, if it has not moved at all and you see no tube feet
moving, likely dead.> Thank you, Mike <Find the source of the
phosphates and manually remove as much Cyano as you
can. With time/effort can be overcome. Stay away
from quick fixes like antibiotic, nothing good every happens fast in
aquariums. Also few creatures consume Cyano so don't
overdo it snails and other cleaner.> <Chris> Astropecten polycanthus...Not For A 29 Gallon Tank - 11/10/05 I recently purchased a Sand Sifting Star. I notice the second day that it had lost two of its arms. I have a 29 gallon tank with one Coral Beauty Angel, live rock and sand. The water tests fine with the nitrate a little high <<how high is "a little?">> with everything else in the normal good range.... Do you think the angel got it or is the nitrate level? <<Could be the nitrates...doubt it is the angel. More likely, the starfish was already sick/injured when it was purchased.>> Thanks for you advice Sandy <<Please do be aware, injured or not, Astropecten polycanthus will not survive in your tank...it is much too small. These animals need much more substrate than your tank can provide in order to find enough food, and even then, will quickly decimate the biota in the sand bed. Regards, EricR>> Starfish dead or dying? - 10/28/05 Hi, <Hey! Paul
here> I bought a red sea star yesterday... I was told that it needed
to be acclimated for several hours, that it was intolerant to changes
in salinity, ph, temperature, etc. I acclimated it for 2 hours, first
getting temperature even and then slowly removing some of the water
from the bag and adding my water every 5 - 10 minutes for at least 1
1/2 hours. <In most cases this would be sufficient but
sometimes it can go much longer. I recommend up to eight hours
depending on the animal but again, two hours should be sufficient.>
After placing it on the sand bed in the tank it made its way up the
wall. I moved around little by little all day. It did have its stomach
out while on the glass, but later at night it put its stomach back
inside and looked as if it were only using 2 legs to attach itself.
Last I checked it was 1 AM. This morning around 7:30 AM I went to the
tank and found it upside down laying in the sand. There was this white
looking small glob of something stuck to the glass a few inches down
from where the sea star was last night. I had to go to work, but I
flipped over the star and tested the water readings... (also did the
same before introducing it yesterday). Both yesterday and today I had
readings of 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 40 ppm nitrate (I know this
is high and I am in the process of removing my bio balls and plan on a
big water change tonight). Alkalinity was at 3.5 or so meq/l, PH a
steady 8.2, calcium at around 450 - 500, salinity is around 1.024, and
temperature never was higher than 77.2 and lower than 76.7. Is this
star dead? <Possibly. A healthy star should have the ability
to right himself on its back. There is definitely something of an issue
here. Hard to say what specifically could be wrong, though. Do read our
FAQs and Seastar pages available to you here on WetWebMedia. Otherwise
do notify the retail establishment where you purchased the star
from.> Could it possibly recover from whatever happened?
<Sorry for the lack of a definitive answer, but anything could
happen. Though it does not look promising if it did not right itself on
its own> Anything I can do besides waiting to see if it moves
and or starts disintegrating? <Water changes is about all you
can do right now. Sorry to not be of more help. ~Paul> Sand-Sifting Starfish Disintegration 10/10/05 Ok, here is my second of two questions. I asked about the Bristleworms yesterday. Thanks, that was super helpful. <Welcome.> You guys truly rule. 55 gal ~100lb of live rock pH: 8.2 at night, varies by <.2/day Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate ~0 ppm (might be /slightly/ higher than 0ppm, but less than .05, I'm partially color blind, so it's tough to tell sometimes) Calcium: 400ppm Temp is about 79-80 degrees (I know a little warm, but it gets really hot under my lights during the summer, and I can't afford to keep the house at 70 degrees to cool it off) Specific Gravity: 1.020 Lighting: AquaClear 300 light strip with (2) "10,00k 65w Daylight," (2) "True Actinic 03 Blue Lights" and (4) blue LED moonlights The tank is 24" high. (mechanical) Filtration: (1) AquaClear 300, (1) Fluval 204 (which I think I shouldn't have purchased after reading your website) and (1) CPR "BakPak" protein skimmer thingie (I'm going to lose the AquaClear and Fluval, per your advice in previous email) <Good idea.> I have read over your website, and I haven't really seen too many postings about Sandsifter Star disintegration. <Echinoderms, especially Stars, do tend to be prone to disintegration due to bacterial infections or possibly starvation. Likely the issue here> Most of the starfish questions are Bristle Stars...which I am morally opposed to since one ate my favorite Peppermint Shrimp last year... <Brittle Stars are a diverse bunch... Some, especially the Green ones, are active hunters. Most others, in my experience, are fine, notably the plain brown ones. Big ones are generally a bad idea, though.> Anyway, I came home last night and my Sandsifter Star was sort of holed in a corner of the tank, and to my horror its skin/scales were falling off of it. It was just disintegrating. It was fairly obvious that it was in the dying process, so I attached some pictures of it after I pulled it out of the tank. <Again, cannot view pics. Luckily this problem is common enough that it does not need any.> It looked like its skin was just falling off of these dark green things inside the legs. I'm guessing the green things were the Star's nervous or skeletal-type system (they tracked what would be its spine/femurs if it had such bones). <Yep, more or less.> The Star had been in this tank for about 9mo w/no problems. <Getting enough food? Sand-sifting stars need a lot to function, and most sand beds simply don't contain enough biodiversity to sustain them for an extended period of time.> I am a tax attorney, so forgive me for not knowing the anatomy non-spine type creatures. <You have my forgiveness.> Anyway, I was pulling the live rocks out of the tank the night before because my Tang got Ich, and the Goby (the only other fish in my display tank) wouldn't come out of the rocks to let me move him to the quarantine tank. <Welcome to the world of fishkeeping.> Well, so you know how cloudy the water gets when you start taking live rocks out, so during this process I looked down and it looked like one of the rocks had fallen on the head/center part of the Sandsifter Star. <Could very well have led to a bacterial infection, then disintegration.> That was almost exactly 24 hours before he (it?) started disintegrating. I confirmed from your website that stars don't get Ich, so I assume it was the fallen rock that killed my star? <Indirectly, yes. The rock cut/bruised the star, opening it up to bacterial infection.> I assume it was the rock, but if there could be something else, I would like to know that before I start working on putting corals/anemones back in the tank. I guess the green tentacle-type things inside its body were what concerned me. The green things were wriggling around independently of the star, so I was afraid this could have been some sort of parasite or something. <As far as I know, there are no such parasites.> More likely it was a part of the Star that was just in a lot of pain. So sad... Rusty, Columbus, Ohio <Indeed. Unfortunately, odds are good that the star is already long gone once it begins to disintegrate. Best, Mike G> <<Please note: these invertebrates do not have the type of nervous system that would "allow" them to feel pain as we higher order vertebrates would/do. Also, Seastars can be treated for bacterial issues, often effectively, if they are separated and treated early on. Google "Marina, Spectrogram, starfish/Seastar" on WWM. Hit the "cached" link to find what you seek more quickly.>> Chocolate Chip - Not Even a Cookie Hola!!! <<Hola, como esta?>> Thanks for all your hard work. Your site offers great advice to help me with every aspect of my tank. I have a CCS that is not doing well. My 20-gallon tank is just over 6 months old, and Choco has been living there for just under 3 months. He shares his habitat with a bi-color blenny, yellow wrasse, tomato clown, and everything that lives on and in the 25 lbs. of live rock in my tank. <<Ok.>> Every time I have had a tank emergency, Choco has carried through like a little trooper. However, he now seems to be wasting away. Over the past week, he has started to act sick. He has started holding himself up against the glass with two of his arms distended away from his body. Being a fairly active sea star, Choco moves about the tank quite a lot, but when he stops he curls his arms up over his belly. When I try to feed him some shrimp, I put it under his stomach, but he just creeps away from it as fast as he can (to the great joy of the clown, wrasse and blenny who have a shrimp-a-palooza until I pull the chunk out of the tank). Choco has not been willing to eat for a week, and he used to eat a lump of shrimp every 2-3 days. <<That is odd. I see below that you've measured some parameters, but not all. What are your nitrite/nitrate readings? High levels will cause the feeding response to diminish, often significantly. Also, do you see ANY necrotic tissue? AT ALL? If so, it's time to act quickly, remove the star to a separate container (heated/filtered - bucket will do) and try treating with Spectrogram.>> The water conditions in my tank are very stable (pH is 8.3, salinity is 25, ammonia 0). All the other fish are doing well and excited at the prospect of moving into a 55 gallon tank next month. <<The other fishes aren't a good gauge by which to measure the parameters for any starfish, including the CCS. It's actually the other way around - starfishes tend to be the "canary in the coalmine". Assuming there have been no large shifts in pH or salinity, I can only guess at this point that nitrite/nitrate are an issue. Otherwise, the possibility of certain metals being built up exists, but have no way to test for at home. Large water changes are my usual action of choice in situations like this. Be sure it's aged, matched for pH/salinity.>> Please help me save Choco and get him to start eating again. Thanks, Seth <<At this point that's about the best advice I can give you, Seth. Do some water changes (do test those other parameters, ammonia's only one, and not the only one that's toxic). Have that Spectrogram on hand anyway, it's good stuff. Marina>> Chocolate Chip Star Question I have a 3-gal. Eclipse tank w/two Chocolate Chip Stars which were living in harmony for over a year, at least until about 2 weeks ago. I noticed that two of the smaller star's arms seemed to be "broken" off and one of his "chips" started turning white, but thought he was just injured by falling live rock (my pencil urchin is quite an excavator). Yesterday, however, I noticed that the larger star appeared to be eating the smaller one. I pried him off and isolated the smaller one in a specimen box (inside the same tank). He seems to be moving and eating OK now but I was wondering, does he have a chance? I was also wondering if there is any difference between the colors of chocolate chip stars--the larger one is grey/black and the smaller one is bright orange.<Go to the link I pasted. There are several FAQ's that will help you. James (Salty Dog)> http://www.wetwebmedia.com/chocchipfaqs.htm Causes of Starfish Death (11/21/04) <Sorry for the delay, I've been out for a couple of weeks, Steve Allen.> Today, I took in a sample of my water to a Petco. They tested the water, and said that the water was great. The nitrates and nitrites were low, and the ammonia was low. <Well, low is not zero, and starfish are very intolerant of ammonia and nitrite and rather intolerant of nitrate as well.> The pH was where it should have been, and so on. <Would be nice if they gave you real, useful numbers, not non-specific generalizations.> she also said, though, that the water might have been a little hard. <What does this mean. Again, useless information. Do you have a qualified marine LFS around that will give you real numbers and carefully considered advice?> Could that have caused the two of them to die? <Doubtful> I am also having a problem with brown algae. It is all over everything, and I am required to clean all of the components of my tank everyday. The people at Petco said I could cure it by leaving the light off for awhile, but could this algae have killed the cc star? <No, the algae did not kill the stars, but is a symptom of excess nutrients (nitrate, phosphate) that could be related. Your stars may have had a bacterial infection. Impossible to be certain. I do suggest you read the FAQs to learn of the real solution to nuisance algae, which is not reducing light,, which has a negative impact on desirable photosynthetic organisms.> Sick African Star (5/29/04) Hi, <Steve Allen here> My fiancé and I purchased a beautiful African Bump Starfish <Protoreastor lincki?> about a month ago for our 20 gallon saltwater tank. He has always been pretty active and enjoys climbing all around the sides of the tank. Last night, while we were out, the power went out at our house for about 2 hours. When we came home, we noticed that one of Oscar's legs looked like it is falling off. Is he okay? <No. Something happened during the power outage that damaged the star. It is at high risk for infection and death. I suggest you remove it to a quarantine tank where you can monitor it closely and treat with antibiotics if it looks infected. The chance of success is small, but it's worth a try.> Thanks, Kelli S. <Hope this helps.> Bloated Star (4/18/04) Hello, <Steve Allen tonight> I have a red general starfish.. I have had him/her since December ... After doing a water change last night, I noticed something strange today when I woke up... I called the fish store where we always buy our friends.. and they were stumped! My starfish looks BLOATED!!!! So bloated that it looks like his "flesh in pulling apart"... I am frustrated.. everything is fine in the tank.. ammonia is 0 same with nitrates, nitrites, phosphorus is fine, salinity is 1.021 (same as it has been since I set the tank up in November)..<Stars will be healthier if kept closer to the salinity of real ocean water -- 1.024 range> I currently have a 55 gallon with 2 clowns and 1 chocolate chip star..( whom has been curled up all day) I am very worried... can you help me? Andrea <Echinoderms are sensitive to sudden changes in water conditions, especially pH and SG. How do you measure your salinity? Those cheap plastic meters are notoriously inaccurate. Also, do you check the pH of the change water? The most likely thing her is some sort of imbalance or toxicity. Check your other parameters (ammonia, etc.) too. It's hard to think of another cause for this bloating if the entire star is swollen. It does not sound as if the CC star is very healthy either. Make sure conditions in the tank are stable. Consider another water change to maintain same pH and increase SG slightly to 1.022. Go slow with changes and make sure you are using an accurate tool. Take some water that you think is 1.021 to your LFS and have them check it with a hydrometer if you're not already using one. Hope this helps.> Falling Stars? Hi, <Hi there- Scott F. at the keyboard today!> I have a 55 gallon aquarium that has been running for about three months. It is completely cycled, very little nitrates, no ammonia, nitrites, copper, salinity at 22. It is occupied by Bar gobies, Chromis, Horseshoe crab, and one Damsel. My water is resin filtered. I bought one Chocolate chip star and he seemed fine for about a month. I had a sudden temperature drop from 78 to 70 degrees and he died. I assumed this was the reason. <Well, it certainly could have contributed...Dramatic environmental shifts are not well-tolerated by these animals> I bought a second one, and it was only active for a brief period and then stayed in one place. After a few days, it died. I had the water retested and found that the PH had dropped to 8.0 and the Phosphates were high ( I hadn't been checking them before). I have other friends with thriving star fish at 22 salinity, so I didn't consider that to be a problem. <In and of themselves, these factor are not problematic...But when you experience a sudden shift, it becomes a problem...> Question: Could the rise of phosphates kill a starfish that quick? or is there some other unknown substance lurking in my water? <I doubt that the phosphates could do it, but the rapid changes in the environment could...Stability is very important. And, yes, there could be some pathogen or other toxin at work in the tank.> There is no algae to speak of growing except some diatom which is receding after I treated for phosphates, I feed the fish brine shrimp with Spirulina everyday mostly, the star would have eaten that mostly. Did it simply starve to death? Thank you. Randy <That would take a rather long time. I think what you're seeing is a reaction to unstable environmental factors, possibly combined with some other problems. My thoughts for future prevention would include careful selection of very healthy animals at the dealer, combined with initial quarantine and environmental stability. Continued use of activated carbon and/or Poly Filter, as well as frequent small water changes, aggressive protein skimming, and continued good feeding practices. In the end, this should do the trick...Keep up good husbandry practices, and I'm sure that your luck will improve! Regards, Scott F> Super Sick Sea Star >Hello hello! >>Hello. >Ok, background...um, I have a 55 gal salt tank, probably 50 or 60 pounds of LR, ~120 pounds of LS, a skimmer than I run sporadically. >>Curious as to why sporadically, unless you're also running a good refugium. >A good filter and all tank specifications are good except recently I noticed a tad of ammonia in the tank about (.25ppm) so I did a water change and the ammonia didn't get any better... huh ponder ponder, sure enough the tap water itself has ammonia issues. >>Damn! Good backtracking, though. >Ok, so I have fixed that issue and now the water I use for changes measures in at 0ppm for ammonia. The tank is also registering 0ppm. The ammonia problem actually occurred maybe two weeks ago and sometime around then my starfish - Archaster typicus - >>Commonly known as a burrowing star, or white burrowing star. >..began slowly falling apart. >>This is NOT good. >In my mind these events only very roughly happened about the same time, but ammonia is a huge player in tank problems so it's worth mentioning. >>Absolutely, and it's enough to send the animal over the edge. >Anyway, I think he may have been injured by another fish (taste-testing maybe?), it started as almost a bite-sized piece missing out of one of his legs, I am almost certain that none of the fish are picking at him anymore (I have never once seen them take a shot at him, although that doesn't mean they don't do it anyway) >>Not unlikely, but just as likely that the animal is dying, as it would look just as you described. >..but this little bite-sized hole has spread, and his body is systematically falling apart. It's very odd, I mean I can tell you exactly which piece will fall of next, it has a definite pattern, the "skin" stops fitting his legs closely, and then the little "bumpers" on the sides of his legs fall off and then a few days later the boning structure that supported it all, falls off. >>Once you've seen enough starfish go, it's not odd at all. Disheartening, but not odd. >It's definitely not the work of another fish at this point...He's moving around like normal but right after the first little spot was missing I did notice that he acted a little sick...I read your FAQs but most people either weren't working with the same species I have or they described his legs as being mushy in appearance, his legs are definitely not mushy, they are like normal, except all the components of his legs are dis-associating...it's very sad to see, I've had this guy for a year come December. He hasn't been moved recently, and the tank has been stable in its animal life (excepting the addition of a pair of scarlet cleaner shrimp), so there's really been nothing new to stress him. I would normally guess the ammonia caused his problems, but the scarlet shrimp have been breeding continuously through the ammonia problem and ever since, having larger and larger broods, while this poor star has been getting worse and worse -- even though the ammonia is gone. I don't know whose indicators to trust when I'm trying to figure out the problem! I'm so sorry this is so long, and thank you so much for your patience and advice, it's very much appreciated. :) Rachael >>Rachael, other inverts are not always the best indicators of water quality when considering starfishes. They're definitely more delicate than the shrimps, and I'd wager the ammonia problem touched off a bad series of events. However, if it's still alive all is not lost. I would set it up in a small hospital, and try Spectrogram. I've seen this stuff pull other starfish looking VERY bad back to the land of the living (at Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, MUCH to my surprise, as I thought they were GONERS). So, give this a try, use water from the main system, mixed half and half with newly mixed water. Plan on doing large water changes daily, so a 2-5 gallon bucket should work just fine for the starfish. Hope this has gotten to you in time, and I do hope it helps! Marina Sick CCS Hi <Hello> My name is Kai and I
have one Chocolate Chip Starfish for about one month and CCS was fine
until our tank has ICH. I saw my CCS's skin rot...and I can see the
white thing...(is that CCS's bones?) <Likely part of the
exoskeleton, yes> What should I do? (I am changing the water because
of the ICH but I don't know how to cure the CCS) <If you have an
older, established system, move this Seastar to it... quickly. If
not... Bob Fenner> Sincerely, Linckia Starfish Hello! I hate to bother you guys
with a "is the doctor in" type fish questions... but I am
really quite concerned and after researching for 3 nights a total of 9
hours, I can't find any solid information. I hope you will tolerate
my inquiry.... <Certainly> I recently purchased a purple Linckia
via mail order. I say purple Linckia not just because that is what the
retailer called it. <Many animals sold as Linckias/Linckias...
please see here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/seastars.htm > I have
studied pictures of both the supposed Linckia and the purple more
predatory star it is often confused with. I notice the other star has
sort of brighter orange feet, while mine has sandy colored feet. Mine
has 5 arms not 6- although I'm not sure if that matters and
although he might not be a Linckia it is my educated guess.
<Doesn't sound like a Linckia laevigata... perhaps a Tamaria...
a predatory species.> A day prior to his arrival I decided to do a
partial water change. My numbers seemed great, nearly negligible, but I
had very slight ammonia and nitrate so I thought some exporting might
help perfect his new home. <Detectable ammonia? Not good> After testing after the water change... both were higher. Maybe from
water exchange stirring the sand? <Perhaps... but perhaps from
a dissolving, decomposing Seastar> I tested my source water and it
appeared that my tap has a high (25) ammonia level. I'm not sure
what to think except maybe ammonia and chlorine are related?
<This is a BIG question... you should not have twenty five ppm of
ammonia... with an OTO test method? Chloramines are how high in your
tapwater? Please contact your municipal water district (their number is
on your water bill), and ask re the titer/method of administration of
what sorts of sanitizer they employ... And by all means, irrespectively
do make-up and store your new water per something like the protocol
described here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/water4maruse.htm? I
didn't treat the water I tested, (and when I water change I do
aerate the salt water mix at least a day prior... also my kit is Red
Sea... and I'm not sure of its accuracy.) At any rate.. he was
already on the way and it seemed like more water change might make the
picture grimmer so I just held my breath. <All these issues are not
easy to discuss here, independently... you should either treat your new
water (if it's not coming through an R.O. or D.I or both device)
with a dechloraminator, or store, aerate it for a week or more before
use> On with the tale... he arrived after a bit of delay... about
1PM rather than 9AM and it must have been a stressful trip. In the
order also were 2 Mithrax, 5 peppermint, 3 Chromis, 1 blenny. The
blenny was dead and one Chromis died. <Arggggg> I drip acclimated
him and after he entered the tank he climbed onto some live rock and
stayed there. He is in a prominent position, but not really high
traffic. I only have a royal Gramma who doesn't create traffic.
(The Chromis are in quarantine) I did not quarantine him because I am
not confident how well cycled the quarantine tank is and the 2 fish
bioload seemed enough, also there is no live sand or rock in there and
if he is a Linckia he is supposed to eat detritus... however he is
right in the light... and at "dusk" and at night he
doesn't move either. <My friend... your quarantine system must
be stable, you have to make sure that you can rely on stable, high
water quality there> After he climbed up on his perch he curled his
toes a little. 6 hours later they were uncurled. He makes a sort of
cobweb above him. I know he is making it because I wiped it off one leg
and it was back within the hour. The perch is in fairly high water
flow. <Yikes...> Here's the problem... I'm coming on 48
hours and he has not moved. <...> Today I lifted him off of
it (I wasn't hard he doesn't even use all of his feet to
attach) and dipped him for one minute in a Lugol's dip (mixed with
the tank water). <What? Why?> No difference now. He
didn't like the dip. He curled his toes. I flipped him over while
he was in the bath and I did not see anything imbedded in him or any
abrasions. I also gave in and did another partial water change
(although smaller) last night. We are leaving in 5 days for vacation.
(the first in 2 years- of course I feel guilty anyways) If this guy
dies in there while we are gone... he could wipe out the tank. I feel
really bad for him. Although his toes look fine and he isn't
showing any degrading of tissue he doesn't seem healthy. Any
advice? All other tank mates seem happy and busy, Anthelia polyps are
open. <I would move, isolate this animal in your quarantine
system... move all else before your trip.> I appreciate your time,
greatly. (If relevant... 33L, 220 PC full/actinic 14/12 hours a day.)
<Not> P.S. Your site appears to be non for profit. Can I donate?
How? I do have a PayPal account. -Brooke <We do have an Amazon
"begging bowl" at the bottom of the homepage and indices...
But please donate your time when you are back, rested from your trip
and can focus on a longer term plan for your aquatic hobby... We can
start at "square one", perhaps help you develop a
relationship with a local dealer... a better regimen of set-up and
operation of your quarantine procedure. Do enjoy your holiday away. Bob
Fenner> Starfish hi my name is Zach I just purchased a chocolate chip starfish and it is moving a lot but the top where the chocolate chips are is kinda puffed up do you think this is normal for them ? I have 1 more question I just set up this tank to but I made sure the salt is right and the temperature is right to and I have a under gravel filter so does that mean that the tank is going through a cycling period? will it hurt the starfish? and if so is there anything I can do about it? thanks please email me back ASAP. < The star is likely fine for now but will have a hard time making it through cycling. Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/index.htm Cody> Starfish dying 3/22/03 My 220 gallon reef tank has been
running well for about 5 years. The past few days, my orange serpent
and orange Linckia stars have all been dying, losing legs, etc. One
species of soft coral seems to be dying also. All other parameters
OK. Nothing new or changed. Help! Ron <cheers,
Ron :) Not sure what could be ailing your poor inverts on a general
symptom... but, making an educated guess from among the many sudden
echinoderm and gastropod ailments we hear... I'm wondering if you
didn't switch brands of sea salt recently? Over the years, I have
heard this complaint with a couple of brands regularly (stunning or
killing starfish and snails particularly). One of these brands has had
a prominent surge in popularity as of late. FWIW... I favor Tropic
Marin, Instant Ocean and Omega brands. If no salt change, I wonder if
there wasn't a belated evaporation top off or other sudden change
of salinity. Else, do consider if there are any other symptoms or
anomalies you can share for the diagnosis. Best regards, my friend.
Anthony> |
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