Starfish Dilemma

octowuss

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Nov 30, 2003
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Hey everyone,
I'm new to the forum but my friend who is an active member (wastememphis) has a 29 Gallon salt water tank with 35lbs of sand 45lbs of live rock... Two Maroon (Gold Striped) Clown, Long Tenticle Anemone, Toadstool Leather, Xeina Polyps, Ten Snails, Scooter Blenny, Two Mushrooms and 10 snails. Just recently he recieved a purple linkia starfish and there seems to be something wrong with it. I bought the star fish for him and we put it in the tank on Friday night. The next morning it was gone and we discovered that it was hiding in between some live rock, probably because it was looking for food, but I'm not sure. The live rock that it wedged itself into, also happens to be home to a monster. About a week ago we discovered a brittle serpent living close to where the star fish moved to that took a fairly large piece of shrimp and pulled it into the crevace it is living in. I am not exactly sure how large the serpent is but from the size of the shrimp it took I am assuming it might be pretty big. Anyway, this afternoon when my friend went to check on the starfish he noticed a white spot on it and decided to move it to get a closer look. Upon further investigation he became aware that the white marks were actually indents in the surface of the starfish as though it might have been bitten by something. I was wondering if it were possible for the serpent to have bitten or tried to have eaten the starfish or if the star fish has some sort of disease? If it has a disease, what could it possibly have and how are we supposed to treat it? Or, if the serpent is attacking the star fish is it possible to get rid of the serpents? Because there is also another one of these same serpents that is dwelling on the opposite side of the tank in another piece of live rock. He will be doing a water changelater on tonight, so if anyone could give me any information about how to deal with this problem, we would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
 
Opps

In correction to the last post I made, I said that they are brittle serpents, when they are actually Bristle worms, because I dont know anything about these things. Sorry about that.
 
How was the linkia acclimated to the tank? Linkia stars are very hard to get--they are often damaged during shipping by poor acclimation. Sudden changes in water conditions cause legs to break down and fall off. Sometimes the star can recover, but often times not. Bristleworms only go after the dead and dying, and are usually complete in their clean up. If the star is still around, the white dots sound more like damage from acclimation issues than anything else. At this point, it's hard to say if it will make it or not.
 
hey, i didn't even have to post it... i only spent about 45mins putting the star fish in the water. I'm afraid it might have been more sitting and getting the temp than 45mins of water acclimation into the bag. I'm sooooooo dumb. I feel afwul, I thought linkia stars were more hardy than this!!! He's climbing in the glass now, he doesn't look good but i pushed some water around him and a few white marks came off... i don't understand but he deff had white marks when i bought him, just a few... i thought he was just kind of pale in that area. Thanks OrionGirl, your always a big help! Even if the acclimation of the star is making him sick and the bristle worm isn't going at him, could it still ''DEVOURE'' the star if he is dying... or while he is sick? Could/Should i put him in a 10gallon QT which is set up. I know it would have to adjust to diff water again but whatever happens in there wont be adjusted due to a potential predator.
 
one of the legs fell off... the leg and the star fish is still on the glass... just 6" away from eachother. oh no. :sad :sad :sad
 
Sounds like there was some damage--may not have been from your acclimation, but that done somewhere between capture and the LFS. The bristleworms will likely clean up the lost legs, but leave the star alone as long as it's alive. I would leave it in the tank--another change won't help out.
 
I did all I could... :sad it'll be awhile till I find a star as cute and one that I'll want to risk this again.
 
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