Help me Ophiura PLZ! or anyone, CC starfish

[fishcity]

HELP! anyone can, I have a CC startfish and when i came home last night it was onits back and looks to be falling apart in its underbelly. I posted a thread earlier and now i am giving specs. It seems to still be alive , it is ISOed and its legs are moving barley. My nitrate level is 0 amonia is the sam, salinity is 1.023. she was hard when i grabed it to take it out of my tank, and now is very limp as i try to feed it. it hasnt eatin much for the past few days , it was eaing dried brine. She has been in the tank for 2 weeks now. Anyone have any clue what i can do for her, if so PLZ let me know....

P.S its legs are ok , they do not look like the middle of the underbody...

 

[kdfrosty]

Whoa. Ophiura is definitely the person who needs to answer this, but I can tell that she'd say that your salinity needs to be up around 1.025 or possibly even higher. She'll probably want ALL water parameters as well, so be prepared.

 

[fishcity]

Thank you very much.

 

[lion_crazz]

What is your temperature? pH? ammonia? nitrite?
How long did you acclimate the starfish when you got him?
What else do you have in the tank witb him?

 

[mbrands]

Originally Posted by FishCity
it was on its back and looks to be falling apart in its underbelly
I've had mine for about 8 months now and have never found it on its back. I wish you luck, but it doesn't look good for him.

 

[debbie]

FishCity, I sure hope that Ophiura can help you soon. But like they all say have all your specs ready for posting. I to have a CC star and just love mine. I do keep my salinity at 1.025 in my tank all the time. I also spot feed my star every other day. I feed frozen krill, scallops, shrimp pellets, algae wafers ( he steels from the urchin sometimes) and crab.
They say acclimatization is very important when introducing these to your tank, I never had any problems.
Can you post a pic of what your star looks like on the underside as well as ontop, I know this can also be of some help too.
I know that exposing stars to air is not a good thing, so for now I would just leave it in the tank it is in and make sure it is flipped over the way it should be.
What size of tank is this and what other fish and inverts are in there?

 

[fishcity]

i am sorry i didnt get back with you , i was scrabiling to try and save the sf .. i did not prevail. thank you for all the help , and sorry for the questions i have yet to answer
, the tank only have 2 hermit crabs and 2 damsesls and a tom. clown. in 20 gal. thank you.

 

[ophiura]

How old is your tank?
How long did you acclimate?
While the food is not particularly appropriate...it takes longer for them to starve.
I do have to point at water quality and acclimation as a possible issue here.....
But sorry, gotta run at the moment

 

[sleasia]

I had four starfish in my old set up (which a boxfish eventually wiped out). My very first starfish had a similar problem. it began to look like it was flaking away. It was a chocolate chip) My water parameters tested 0 for nitrites nitrates ammonia. ph was 8.3, salinity was 1.023. after a few days I began to suspect my testing chemicles were not accurate. so I went to the local fish geek and sure enough a trace of nitrites. Also he told me my tank was relatively new, 6 months old at that time, and perhaps my skimmer was too powerful and not allowing enough stuff to build up in the tank for the starfish to eat. Wierdly enough, later, when the boxfish annhilated my tank, the starfish all continued to survive. I gave them back to a fish store because the only thing I could do was start my tank all over again to get rid of the boxfish toxins. go figure. none of the fish died because of the trace nitrites, but they all died from the boxfish toxin which the starfish seemed to be immune to or something....???yet, if all this is true, the starfish seemed extremely sensitive to even a trace of nitrites. Maybe this is all wrong, but it is the best we could figure out based on the people we had advising us. :notsure:

 

[darth tang]

I agree with Ophiura. It is either your Nitrites or nitrates. Check those.
Or it is how you acclimated it. I drip acclimate all my stars for minimum two hours. most times three.
CC starfish are probably the easiest starfish to keep in my estimation. I have kept one at least in all my tanks (non-reef). I doubt it has to do with your salinity. I have kept mine in salinity a tad bit lower than that before.....but not for an extended period.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by sleasia
. go figure. none of the fish died because of the trace nitrites, but they all died from the boxfish toxin which the starfish seemed to be immune to or something....???
Several toxins produced by these animals are only fish toxins and do not harm invertebrates. Same is true of toxins produced by sea cucumbers. They only impact fish (the primary predators of these animals), and not invertebrates.

 

[sleasia]

Thanks Ophiura for finally clearing this up for me. This is what I suspected. I suppose I could have a starfish and boxfish tank. But I don't know if you answered the original sick starfish question for the other member??

 

[ophiura]

I can't answer it without more background. I would say the salinity is probably too low, and most likely it was acclimation/osmotic shock...if it follows a typical pattern and time frame. But that is the best that can be done without more info