Ophiura or anyone else a couple questions.

[darth tang]

I am baffled.
I posted before about my tank crashing under Hypo (mainly due to the ammonia rising a bit and a Drastic Ph drop, this was corrected).
I was left with a firefish goby, engineer, a molly, and a "spotted" grouper.
Ophuira, you mention my tank seemed over stocked which I agree with so I haven't added any new fish since the incident.
Yesterday I got home late from work and my grouper was dead. The crash was about 3-4 weeks ago. Here is what I saw. The Grouper looked as if his skin/scales were peeled back or "burned" away in some places. This being the cause of death. I immediately checked my levels.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.2
Temp 82
Salinity 1.026
I called a friend of mine and borrowed a meter to check for electric current. None
I am at a loss and thinking it was latent due to the earlier tank crash. Any ideas other than that?
I also have a starfish question. I feed my chocolate chip and orange knobby starfish one shrimp a day each. Choco is 4 inches across and The orange knobby is 6-7 inches across. Is the normal to have to feed them this much. The crawl up the glass everyday at the same time and pull two arms back on the surface of the water waiting for me to come over and drop the shrimp on them.....eat the shrimp in about an hour or two and then go roaming later returning to the surface doing the same thing over the next two hours. Should I feed them more?

 

[ophiura]

Hmmm, sorry to hear that. I'm not really sure, sad to say about the grouper. Maybe a bump will help get people to see it...or maybe look in the disease forum? Otherwise the other standards just to rule out are any painting, cleansers, etc that got near the tank?
As for the seastars, don't let them train you. I am not entirely sure where the idea that they learn to beg for food by coming to the surface came from, but I don't think they are "remembering" this behavior. The reason they head for the surface might be something totally unrelated. :thinking: You can feed them that often, but you probably don't need to. I would also vary the diet a bit more...not just shrimp but defrosted clams, mussel, squid, silversides...stuff like that.

 

[darth tang]

Thanks. I use window cleaner on the front of the tank occassionally. But I spray my towel two rooms away and then let it sit a minute before wiping the front glass with it. I take great care in keeping the rag from going near the top frame of the tank. I made that mistake once of spraying around teh tank and learned the hard way.
I do switch up the Star diet. Silversides and krill. Clams as well. They love the clams....so much so they ate all of my cleaner clams I resued from the grocery store. I am down to oine out of ten.
Thanks for your input. I think I will be waiting atleast a month before I restock anything.