Fromia Starfish

[shnabbles]

I picked one up about a week ago and it has barely moved over the past week.. i mean its moved like an inch... it moves very little from day to day... Still looks alive .... im just wondering what its deal is.... do they take a long time to adapt to a new tank?
Right now i have it on some rocks.
Hobby Experience: 3 Years

 

[mcbdz]

Originally Posted by Shnabbles
I picked one up about a week ago and it has barely moved over the past week.. i mean its moved like an inch... it moves very little from day to day... Still looks alive .... im just wondering what its deal is.... do they take a long time to adapt to a new tank?
Right now i have it on some rocks.
Hobby Experience: 3 Years

More important than experience is its envirment. Please give info on your tank. Size, age, #'s of LR, LS, rest of livestock, water parameters(actual numbers please) and how did you acclimate it. This info will help someone give you good advise on them. It could just be acclimating

, But we would have a better pic with this info.

 

[ophiura]

They often do not do well, and die of acclimation shock within the first month. It is imperative to know your parameters and how you acclimated it.
Needs:
Mature reef tank (at least 6 months old)
Pristine parameters
LOADS of LR (at least 100lbs IMO, minimum)
long acclimation (several hours)

 

[shnabbles]

It moved today as much as it has in the past week so hopefully thats a good sign.
Tank is about 10 months old, 180+lbs of Live Rock.. Salt is 1.026, PH 8.2 temp is 78-79 Alk is 9.0 meq CA is 500 (working on lowering). Nitrate is 0... I probally acclimated it in 2 hours or less...which sucks ... hopefully he makes it

 

[shnabbles]

bump

 

[ophiura]

Sounds like it is in the right system

we'll keep fingers crossed at this point. It will be a month after introduction until we can consider it acclimated. Watch for disintegration of the arm tips.

 

[shnabbles]

Should i be trying to special feed it anything or will will it get what it needs off the rocks?

 

[mcbdz]

Originally Posted by Shnabbles
Should i be trying to special feed it anything or will will it get what it needs off the rocks?
Hopefully get what it neededs off the rock. No one really knows what they eat.

 

[candycane]

The above post stands to be true with these things. They are omnivores and eat detritus as well. If you didn't take a good amount of time to acclimate it, it probably will be a bit "sluggish" if it doesn't parrish (fingers crossed that the bugger lives). The only thing that I have had a problem with them is they catch bacteria infections rather easily which will cause their limbs to fall off. Just the fact it is still alive is a pretty good sign.
I would recommend, I don't know how much though, that you feed your tank some finer planktonic food that it can pic off the rock and out of the sand bed as well.

 

[ophiura]

IMO, they do not eat detritus, if they did, they could be kept in any size tank...especially young dirty one's. Their diet is pretty poorly understood, but often thought to include a lot of sponge...which would be tied to available nutrients for sure. There is no doubt that success with them is HIGHLY correlated with increasing amounts of LR.
The bacterial infections, are secondary to osmotic and thus physiological shock. That is why acclimation is so extremely critical, though often damage is done long before they end up with the hobbyist