brittle star fish

[salsells]

I woke up this morning and one of my Brittle starfish was in pieces...could one of the fish eaten him, i have 2 clowns, 2damsels, a wrasse and a scooter. Also a shrimp, lots of snails, crabs. I notice the wrasse picking at him the last two days when he came out of LR

 

[celacanthr]

specific water parameters please.
When you say pieces, please be morse specific.
like chunks were bitten off and spit out , or whole legs are seperated.

 

[salsells]

yesterday just pieces, today he was in several pieces, i mean whoe legs...disgusting. He was okay when hiding in the LR but he got brave and was crawling around the sand and I saw the warssa picking at him. This morning he was in about 3 pieces.

 

[celacanthr]

salinity?
ammonia?
nitrite?
nitrate?
age?
ph?
temp?

 

[sinner's girl]

Need to know your water levels. To see if the brittle was dying or killed. My fish never bothered the stars.
Brittles 'die' slowly and can regrow if the center disk is okay and the water is good. I've seen it were the legs just kinda slowly get shorter, and I've it where the brittle will lose parts of his legs, just drop them in pieces.

 

[salsells]

i am tryng to test water, I have the strips for saltwater and it shows all my levels are excellent but i don't have numbers. Have another kit, fastest saltwater aquarium master test kit, i have put in tank water and added packet 1 for 3 min and then packet 2 let stand for 15 - 20 min and campare color chip. I don't know which one, red or yellow, one chip has 10 - 20 and on up to 100 yellow and says nitrate-n mg/l(sw) other one is red and says nitrite-N and goes from 0.2 to 1.0. I do not know how to read, really a dummy...I did the water and the color with the two ammonia packets is a pale yellow, lighter then the yellow chip that starts at 10. what does this mean???? My friends will be here next week to check on my tank that is 3 weeks cycling and everything seems to be doing great accept the brittle star. very frustrating to try and read this test kit. confusing...

 

[celacanthr]

You should get red sea or a different liquid test kit, test strips very hard to test with, but excellent is not specific enough, excellent for just fish is no neccessarily good for brittle stars.

 

[salsells]

thanks i will get other test kit and let you know.

 

[salsells]

ok i tested water as follows
salinity is 1.026
ammonia 0
nitrate under 8
nitrite 0.1
age 3 wks
ph 7.8
temp 77
is this okay for brittle star fish??? i had 2 now just 1 and i cannot figure if my wrassa killed one or it's my water??

 

[celacanthr]

well, one you added fish way to fast, i believe you are still cycling since your nitrite is .1
which is very bad for a brittle.

 

[salsells]

thanks, i added clowns, damsel, scooter and wrassa in 3rd week and they seem to be doing great. Hope it keeps us, the only problem i have is with the brittle, i have one more in tank and it seems to be okay. going into 4th week of new tank. I will not add anything else, what are the best readings for salinity, nitate, nitrite, ammonia, ph and tem????

 

[salsells]

thanks, i added clowns, damsel, scooter and wrassa in 3rd week and they seem to be doing great. Hope it keeps up, the only problem i have is with the brittle, i have one more in tank and it seems to be okay. going into 4th week of new tank. I will not add anything else, what are the best readings for salinity, nitate, nitrite, ammonia, ph and temp????

 

[celacanthr]

Well, the reason you don't see ill effects with your fish is probably that they are more resilient.
Nitrate-less than 20
nitrite-0
ammonia-0
salinity-1.025-1.027
ph-8.2
temp- 76-82 (it is the general consensus that it is more important that the temp does not swing more than 2 degrees in 24 hours)
Im always happy to help, but this is just what I think the problem is, if you wait for ophiura she can help you more.

 

[keonia]

Just wondering if someone can house your fishes for a couple of weeks? or can you sell the fishes back to LFS?
while cycling in first 1 - 3 weeks, have you spiked your water and monitored water parameters? spiked - meaning if you used a piece of raw shrimp let the nitrate rise (converts to nitrite) which spikes as well and in time the water parameters reduce?
Do you have any LR? Live rock? what size tank?
The reason for the spike is because it creates bacteria that is good for the fishes and necessary for survival.
Problem solving idea -- if the answer is no the someone housing fishes/selling them----
does anyone know if getting a bio spira -- packet with the "necessary bacteria" would be a potential option for salsells? I'm thinking take fishes out Quarantine tank - use same water from tank and let fishes stay in (use airstone/carbon etc... it while the bio spira works in the main tank. Of course salsells would have to get a QT if currently don't have one.

 

[celacanthr]

keonia yeah it is an option...but the tank will probably crah some time after the dosing.

 

[1journeyman]

My guess would be nitrite killed brittlestar.
My suggestion would be to do frequent water changes... The tank has not cycled yet, but I'm not sure how much will survive if you just wait it out.