Chocolate Chip in Trouble

[rogueangel]

This is also posted in disease and treatment, so please respond to either one if ya'll can help. My boyfriend bought me a chocolate chip starfish last tuesday, and now she's not looking too well. And yes I know very well that my tank isn't mature enough to house her happily but the lfs he got her from won't take fish back unless they're dead. So here's the current situation. I have a over month old tank, already finished its cycle (hit 0's after the first wk and hit the diatoms stage last weekend). The water perims are. Ph 8.2, Salinity 1.023 (I'm trying to do water changes to bring it up), Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10. Temp. 80. The tank is a 12 gal w/ a 1in sand bed and over 10lbs lr. Other tank inhabitants are 3snails, 3 crabs, 1 damsel. I accumilated her for 4hrs using hte drip method. But I noticed last wed she had little white spots on her. I had to leave my tank for a day and I came back and it looks like on some of her arms her skin is dissenigrating and white is showing through. What do i do for the poor thing? I've found so far 2 options that could be wrong w/ her.... could it be calcuim burn? I didn't even think about that. I've been dosing my tank w/ purple up... could that cause the skin to erode? How do I fix it? I put in some Stress coat / Aloe to help heal her... or I just found when i went through the archives... the part about them melting away due to accumilation. is there any way to reverse this, to help rebuild the stars health... I really feel awful about torturing this creature. Please is there anyone that can help?

:help:

 

[nofish4u!!]

Has she been eating? Have you done any spot feeding?

 

[rogueangel]

She ate the first 1day by coming up to the top. After that she cruised around eating the algea. Tonight I spot feed her. Usually though I just manuever some pellets and flakes to land near where she's at and she'll eat them.

 

[rogueangel]

my tanks squeky clean and has the swirls from her sucker things so I know she's eating... does this narrow it down either way?

 

[rogueangel]

by squeaky clean I mean it was covered in algea and I was plannin on going tomorrow to get a glass cleaner so I could see. now the glass is clear as a bell other than the swirls

 

[lion_crazz]

Well you said you have algae all over the tank? Why is that? Since your nitrates aren't high, I have to assume you have high phosphates. Are you using RO or tap water?
Since you are dosing purple up, are you testing for calcium and alkalinity?

 

[rogueangel]

I only use RO, and I'm going to pick up the tests for calcium and alkalinity tomorrow. I forgot to grab those when I got the purple up last week.

 

[unleashed]

purple up is not a substute for calcium additives purple up accually uses the calcium already in your tank changing it to be utilized faster by coraline algae becuase of the starfish being more a reef enviroment species(invert ) not only does it require calcium but also magnezium stontium and iodine.this is a very new tank and it wont have the amounts of thes minerals that are required to keep fragile inverts in yet.i use reef advantage cal buffer which containt mag and strontium/periodic dosing with kents logal solution(iodine).purple up once in a while ,seachems ph buffer 8.3
bring your alinaty up also to 1.024-1.025 this is reef enviroment and will help him along much better.remember too much of one thing can be harmuful but also not enough can be just as bad

 

[rogueangel]

ok so I need the Cal Buffer, Logal Solution, and the Ph Buffer? and as for the salinity... do I need to do the water changes w/ 1.024 level water or higher? I did the last one w/ the 1.024 level but it didn't change anything.

 

[rogueangel]

And since your suggesting this does it rule out the Osmosic Shock?

 

[unleashed]

to boost the sg make the new water 1.026 and do just a water change as normal you dont want to shock everything.that should bring you up at slow lever ar right to it depending o n how much your changing out.as for osmosis shock I have no clue what that is to determine if thats ruled in or out lol.sorry. also get a cal and iodine test kit these are 2 things you realy dont want to overdose.alk test is a good one to have around too.they may seem to cost a bit up front but that last a long time..you will def need a ph buffer when using a ro unit.i never had to until i got one too now i have to buff all the time

 

[rogueangel]

Osmotic Shock is what happens when the star's not accumilated properly. Anyone able to id the differences b/w it and if the erosion is from lack of nutrients?

 

[rogueangel]

anyone?

 

[ctgretzky9]

Unless you can get it to absolutely spot feed in the next day or so, give it to someone..even just donate it back to the lfs. It is going to die in a 12g tank. There simply is not enough of a sand bed and LR to support any star, really, except maybe a brittle.

 

[toyshika]

Well, for my star fish, I did the slow drip for one hour with them. They wouldn't stop climbing the bucket, and sooner or later, they would have got out. They been well since. I spot feed mine shrimp. I think it's best, this way I know he is eating, versus throwing food down. I've found with these species, or at least mine, he wants me to spot feed him when he is at the top of the tank, rather than drop good. I don't have algae on the glass for him to eat, thanks to the clean up crew. I would suggest you check your levels though like the other person suggested. I was using PurpleUp when I had NOTHING in the tank. I wasn't sure actually if you could use it while you had inverts in the tank, so I stopped using it, although it works great. Good Luck

 

[rogueangel]

Thanks ya'll. She ate yestturday and some earlier today. Should i continue using the stress coat stuff with the water changes? it says it has aloe so I'm hoping maybe that'll help some

 

[ophiura]

The star is not starving, it is most likely osmotic shock, which can be from your system or from the LFS or from the wholesaler...they can take a month to show signs of this issue.
The fact it continues to eat is a good sign, with good water conditions it may improve. Definitely work on getting the salinity up.
If the deterioration continues, you may wish to perform some surgery by getting a new razor blade and actually cutting the damaged parts of the arm cleanly off.

 

[rogueangel]

ok thanks, I just need to cut below the deterioation line... will I need to take her out of the water to do this? Or try it wile she's up high in my tank?. I have an acrylic tank so I wanna know the best thing for her and it.

 

[ophiura]

If you do this, take the star out and place in a shallow disk with some water. If needed you can remove it briefly from the water to make the cut but be firm and do it quickly to minimize exposure.
Feed it very well, different types of food...meaty stuff, algae wafers, shrimp pellets, etc.

 

[rogueangel]

ok will do