Blue starfish

[dshurett]

Got my blue starfish in from SWF.com today..i know bad timing...and the starfish had 2 little pollop looking things on it. Not exactly sure what they are...i didn't really mess with it. I have already gone through the acclimation procedure and really took my time..about 2-2 1/2 hours. The pollops are white with black strips...could these be eggs? surely not...something else? The pollops are right next to each other on one of the legs.
I also am unable to find contact info for SWF.com so if anyone has it please let me know.
Thanks

 

[dshurett]

I hope this guy makes it...he is SOOOOO cool. Well he decided to climb up on the glass so I could take a picture of him. I believe these are actually shells. They have the shape, size and apparent texture of a shell attached to the thing. Should i touch them or try to remove them?

 

[mr.marine]

looks like shells to me
tell me how it does. im getting one soon. well in about two months planned to get one sooner but had a disease out break
Mr.Marine

 

[dshurett]

I red somewhere that these can get parasitic snails that feed on their fluids. Think this may be what is on my starfish? I have tried emailing SWF.com regarding this matter and I can get no response from them. Anyone have any contact info?

 

[ebeckels]

saltwaterfishcom@aol.com is the email address i've used and it's worked...however, the last email i sent to them a few days ago...they read it but didn't respond...i'm not sure what's going on? I just ordered a blue starfish and a green hammer coral from swf.com hopefully mine will be ok.
-Eric

 

[fishymissy]

Yes, remove the shells, better safe than sorry......

 

[ebeckels]

hey...i just got my blue starfish from swf.com and it has the same shell thing on one of it's leg. It's still acclimating...(i got it a half hour ago) So did u remove it? Is the starfish ok? How did u remove it? Just pulled it off? Any info would be great, this guy looks awesome and i don't want to hurt him. Thanks

 

[ebeckels]

I can't find my blue star now.... he crawled behind a rock when he went in and hasn't been back. Should he be ok there? anyone have any ideas about this or the shell on him?

 

[dshurett]

I did remove mine. It left 2 holes in the leg and I am not sure if they are healing up or are falling off.
Here is a quote from Dr. Ron Shimek on my snails:
The snails on the Linckia were Eulimid snails called Thyca crystallina. The larger animal is the female, the smaller the male. In general eulimids are parasitic on sea stars or other echinoderms, and live by ingesting its internal fluids. Thyca are no exceptions. They cut a small hole in the star's body wall and were sucking fluids from the body cavity.
The star's arm was likely severely damaged, possibly about as much from your removal of the parasites as from their action; they are well adapted parasites and really don't seem to damage the stars much. However, it is likely healing up. These stars have great powers of regeneration. I would guess it will be fine.