star fish blow up

[wallie]

ok i have / had the same serpent star for around 2 years hes huge any way he kinda blow up i found him today with his body completly opend up and all his legs detached i went to remove him and his parts the legs are still responding should i leave them in there or disgard them. any idea what would have coused this i have nothing in the tank that i think would have done this.just snails and a few blue leg hermits. will the legs regenerate? thanks for your help

 

[gtiguy]

Ok I have had a reef tank for over 2 yrs now but my dam overflow is way to loud, i used to put some poly pad in the overflow to shut it up (which it did until the poly pad got dirty and thus start makin noise again) but is there really any way to quiet it down...I have my overflow with U tube plumbed with PVC into my sump....
Anyone have a real solution? what about those auto syphon overflows any good?

 

[ophiura]

Have you done a water change recently?
It is imperative to know your SPECIFIC water parameters, especially specific gravity...do you measure with a hydrometer? If so, when was the last time you soaked it in vinegar?
This is an osmotic problem, most likely.
The arms (assuming they are just single arms) will not regenerate though they will move. They can be removed.

 

[wallie]

yes i did a 10% this week i switced salt instant ocen to reef crystals i use there differnt hydrometers to make sure they are acuret my sal is 1.026 i will remove them thanks

 

[ophiura]

Something definitely went wrong with that water change. It is possible that even pH, alkalinity, calcium or other things were significantly off that caused problems. Sometimes hard to know but because it also lost all its arms, IMO, it is an osmotic problem rather than, for example, a feeding problem. Sometimes if they eat something too large it will literally break through the disk, but this usually does not cause the animal to lose arms.