serpentine star fish

[hammerandy]

My serpentine star fish is losing legs. They are turning white or gray near the body and falling off. One lost all his legs and the second is turning the same. We have had this tank up for 2 years and have had these critters for 9 months. You know we had this tank up for 9 months with nothing but rock and live sand before we put anything in it. I learned my lesson at home with my 125 gallon tank. We put a couple pcs. of live rock with a bunch of regular starter rock. Amazing they are all covered with Coraline Algae. Not that I lost a lot at home but in this tank besides snails and some hermit crabs (which ate my snails) that is all we have lost. Not one fish and we have a hippo, foxface,yellow tang, large Marroon and royal gramma in this tank for 7 months.

What is up though with my star fish? I have two at home for 2 years and they have been fine. Would a coral banded shrimp who has been in the tank for year mess with them all of a sudden.
What is the shelf life of stars. I see no problems with my fish.


Usual two 10 gallon water per month water change on this 90 gallon tank. Protein skimmer in sub. Feed daily with flake (except weekends nothing). Once a week ground squid, shrimp,and scallops a cube. Add Selcon to the dry food once per week and that is all.




Randy

 

[Boogiechillin]

Sounds like salinity or pH shock...did this happen after a water change? Alternatively, are they getting enough to eat? You need to target feed serpent stars if you feed the tank sparingly.

 

[hammerandy]

with winter setting in we have need to add alot more fresh water to keep the salanity levels constant to the point of probably 5 gallons per week on a 90 gallon tank with no glass cover. There are the weekends that we do not add and on Mondays we will add almost two gallons duriing the day. This may have been the problem. We feed flake food daily and ground shrimp,scallops,and squid once a week.
Randy