Brittle Starfish Help!!

[lorab]

Hey all!
Please help. I just got my brittle starfish from this site yesterday and when he arrived, one of his arms was laying on the bottom of the bag!!! :scared:
Will he survive? He seems to be doing fine, but he still tries to use his little nub, and falls off the LR! Will it grow back? Any info is greatly appreciated!
:joy:

 

[6stokes]

Yes it will grow back. As a matter of fact, the one arm that broke off can grow a whole new body. Did you keep it?

 

[cotti]

Originally Posted by 6stokes
Yes it will grow back. As a matter of fact, the one arm that broke off can grow a whole new body. Did you keep it?
i'd be cussing myself right now b/c i would have thrown it away not thinking about that

 

[lorab]

Crap...

I had NO idea about the arm growing a whole new body. I was about to fish two more arms out of the tank... yes, my poor starfish lost two more arms last night!!! He looks really pathetic with only two arms. He is still trying to move around though, and eating. I will leave the arms in the tank and see if they grow. Thanks for the help. I wish I knew why this was happening...

 

[lorab]

MORE TROUBLE!
Now it looks like his body is splitting in half. The clown fish are starting to pick at the broken ends of the legs. Is the starfish now dead?
:help:

 

[bigarn]

How did you acclimate it and what are the water parameters? It doesn't sound good to me.

 

[uberlink]

Sounds like he's a goner. The acclimation with these guys is absolutely crucial: you have to do a very slow drip acclimation as per instructions on this site. However, it sounds like this little guy might have had problems before you got him. Too bad! I'd get him out of there ASAP to keep him from rotting in there and polluting your water.
Incidentally, for whatever little it's worth, you can pack his remnants in salt, return them to the site, and they'll replace him on your next order.

 

[lorab]

Sounds good...
I got him and most of his bits and pieces out of the tank...
My water parameters were fine. Nitrates slightly above 0, but still okay. I did a water change this morning to make sure that wasn't the problem. All else are doing great!
As far as the acclimation of the starfish... I couldnt' tell you. I was in the hospital getting my contractions stopped (pre-term labor).. so my mom had to acclimate everyone for me. She said she followed the directions closely, but you never know with moms... ya know? I do know that she told me the emerald crabs were so mean that she just picked them out of the buckets and threw them in the tank after 15 minutes of acclimating... she also said she did it because they were going after the starfish. I had told her to put the starfish in with the snails... I don't mind losing a few snails to a beautiful starfish.

 

[ssjkakarot]

when i got mine it lost all but 2 legs, he grew them back and is huge now

 

[lorab]

Originally Posted by ssjkakarot
when i got mine it lost all but 2 legs, he grew them back and is huge now
Ok, so how did you know it wasn't dead? :notsure: