Sea star dismemberment?

[fishnet]

I just got a new sea star. I don't know what kind other than he sorta looks like 1/2 serpent and 1/2 brittle star. He's green with a smooth top with yellow spikes on his underside.
So here's my question. It seems that he's lost half of two of his "legs". I can see that they are inside his little cave, so I don't think any of my other critters actually attacked him. Could he have done this to himself? Is this a stress response? :notsure:
Any guidance? He's so cool, I really don't want to lose him.

 

[the___jest]

I'm having the same problem I have two stars and they are loosing legs like krazy My serpent star has no legs now I am very upset at whats going on If you find out please let me know.

 

[unleashed]

some starfish accually reproduce by dismemberment serpant stars being one of them
if a portion of the abdoment is attated to a leg when its lost it may reproduce into a new starfish.other time it could be a number of factors causing this 1st being attacted or harrassed by tank mates to defends itself will accually drop its own limbs to escape 2nd is accual removal by other tank mates
3rd is lack of calcium in the tank will cause a starfish to fall apart
4th lack of food will create same as number 3
1 and 4 are taken care of they should regrow new limbs
I have a brittle that was down to 2 legs left I removed him from a harassing tank he regrew all of them back.he lost 1 when i removed him to begin with lol

 

[fishnet]

the_jest, best of luck -- I have no idea what's going on with these stars.
Thanks for the input unleashed.
#1 -- I don't think he's being harassed by anything, at least not that I've seen. Most of my fish are pretty docile. I suppose it could be a smaller organism like a worm or something, but I don't know. I'd think a sea star could survive a "worm attack".
#2 -- see #1.
#3 -- I dose calcium, but I haven't checked levels.
#4 -- I've only had him for less than a week now. How do I know if he's eating? I've fed the tank mysis shrimp with the hopes that he'd eat it.
Thanks for any help. I really appreciate it.

 

[danedodger]

It seems like stars are pretty darn delicate critters and will fall apart in various ways if everything isn't just so. Ophiura would be a better person to answer star questions. What are your water parameters?

 

[unleashed]

depending on its size the food will vary.I accually feed mine silverslides(very small dead fish)when it was smaller I fed mysis and krill.if its larger than 5 inches you can use silverslides they will accually take them off of a stick and hide away with the food.unfortunatly starfish are oprintunistic feeders if you have smaller fish 1-3 inches and your star is 4-5 inches or larger they can and will if given the chance eat your fish.I kept oone in my reef for a long time till I started losing fish.I put him in my agressive tank.

 

[unleashed]

I have a website on stars its very very informative if you post email id be glad to send you a link from you discribe you have a Serpent star (Ophiarachna incrassata)
hopefully you will get this link
http://www.starfish.ch/reef/echinoderms.html

 

[fishnet]

Originally Posted by unleashed
you discribe you have a Serpent star (Ophiarachna incrassata)
Yep, that's him. Thanks for the link. Lots of good stuff there. YIKES! I didn't know he might actually hunt my fish. I'm glad that I don't really have any really small fish (the smallest is a royal gramma). I was told that he'd forage the sand for food -- I was hoping that he'd help play clean-up. Looks like I should spot-feed him too.
As usual, I'm learning to come here and ask folks before buying ANYTHING!

 

[ophiura]

These animals do not typically reproduce by dropping arms. While sometimes they can regrow the animal, it is not extremely common, IMO, and is the result of something catastrophic. Brittlestars need 3 arms to properly move, so animals that reproduce in this fashion tend to have 6 arms. But the larger brittlestars we keep do not fall into this group.
This is a sign, in a newly introduced individual, of acclimation shock, IMO.
How long did you acclimate? What is the specific gravity of your water? How old is the tank?
In established animals it can also be a sign of water quality problems (too high or too low specific gravity for example), predation or starvation.
Not all of these animals are predators but some may be an issue. Spot feeding is recommended, but may not prevent predation. But I do not suggest that they be left to scavenge.
FWIW, there is no biological difference between brittlestars and serpentstars. It is a distinction made only in this trade, but has no meaning in terms of requirements or behavior. Both have arm spines but in one case they are perpendicular to the arms (called brittlestars) and in another parallel to the arms (called serpentstars). However, the latin name ophiuroid means "serpent like" (the source of one common name) and brittlestar refers to the ability of all members of this group to drop arms at will.
In addition to the above info, I have a website specifically dedicated to these animals which I studied for several years. Unfortunately, I haven't updated in awhile

. Click on my user name for it.

 

[sea_squirt]

I would definitely check your Ca and Phos levels....My green serpent star perished before I figured out my Ca test was faulty and instead of 420, my Ca was 600...