Problem with Chocolate Chip Starfish

Thanks for the help Orion Girl. I feel bad, I hope I haven't been starving the poor thing. In the AM I feed the other fish small amount of meaty food San Francisco Bay Brand Marine Cuisine which contains the following:
Artemia Franciscana, krill, mysis, menhaden oil, astaxanthin, sodium alginate, spirulina. I'm sure some of this makes it to the bottom.

In the PM I feed them a small amout of New life Spectrum Marine Fish Formula
1mm pellets.


Joe
 
Some likely isn't enough. Starfish normally eat just about all day long--and can consume a lot at one time. I feed my bigger stars one full tab every three days, and they still do a lot of clean up. With small bits of food that spread out, it's tough for a star to move around enough to find it all before it rots--and all that moving burns even more calories.
 
Many inverts die of slow starvation, even in reef systems.
I have fed these using a small 1/4 inch chunk of raw shrimp 2 or 3 times a week, impaled on a wooden dowel which was sharpened in a pencil sharpener. When the starfish crawls up the side of the glass you can hold it near until the star envelopes the food, then watch the process, which is surprisingly quick.
 
I did a 10% water change about a week ago, but salinity is the same.
 
About 2 weeks ago I had a Alkalinity problem the alkalinity was way too high. Like 475 ppm. So I was advised to do a 10 gallon water change, followed by 3 days of 3 gallon changes. The alkalinity came down slowly. The pH has remain 8.26 or above and the salinity has been 1.022 - 1.023. Although the Starfish was less active before the water problems. Anyway I found him dead yesterday. Thanks again for all the help.


Joe
PS. This is a far more informative board than others I have gone too.
 
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