Starfish Death

[rkbisme]

Just added a Red starfish to exsiting reef tank...have never lost any other inhabitants but within 2 days the new red star was taken apart. Just wondering if anyone knows of any connection between the death and the pistol shrimp in the tank. Just trying to nail down the culpret.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Well, welcome to the board first of all. Now, what is the cast of possible culprits? Don't want to blame the pistol shrimp if there are other meanies in the tank. How did the poor unfortunate star fish get taken apart? (ie. Was it missing any whole limbs or did it look like it died and some hermits went to work?)
Dan'l

 

[fat_ed]

Some shrimps are obligate starfish feeders, such as the harlequin shrimp, but the pistol shrimp is not one of them. I have a red fromia in my tank with 4 varieties of hermits, emerald crabs, cleaner, fire and peppermint shrimp. None of them have ever picked on the starfish.
My guess is that the starfish was not healthy when you got it, or did not survive acclimation.

 

[here fishy]

I have had 2 blue stars "rot" in my tank after purchasing them. Some are very sensitive to water changes. I think that is what your situation may be. Always get them out quick when they start rotting as they will really make the water conditions go bad.

 

[rkbisme]

Thanks for the reminder everyone...guess I had started jumping to conclusions and never thought about the whole picture. Guess I'll put another one in and see how things go.
Just for the record, I do have a few small crabs, but they have always seem to stay clear of any of the other stars. Guess I'm glad I didn't catch the pistol after all..lol
Luckily I did catch the death the next morning, I keep a close eye on newbies just to be safe.
I'll have to remeber not to jump to conclusions next time.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
If you get another one, be sure and acclimate very slowly. I take over an hour to acclimate most stuff by adding tank water to the bag every 15 minutes with a shot glass. Then I empty half the bag and slowly fill it back up. At least that way you remove a source of stress and eliminate one possible reason for a death.
Dan'l

 

[adrian]

They are very sensitive to changes in salinity and should be acclimated over a period of at least a couple of hours, if not longer. IMO acclimation by the drip method is a must with most starfish and some other inverts like certain snails and shrimp. HTH

 

[new2saltwater]

I gotta agree with Adron & Flydan you can't acclimate them like a fish if you want it to live do a slowwww drip method if not within 24hrs bits and pieces of it will be floating around the tank.

 

[matt dowdney]

I have to disagree with these acclimation processes. I have 3 star fish in my tank, brittle and 2 serpants. I let them float for 20 min and then placed them directly onto my substraight. I've never had a problem with rot or death. I've also been told, and red that for a fish or invert to acclimate to the biology of the water, it can take up to 24 hours. Temperature is the key factor. I don't know, maybe I've just been lucky, but ask your LFS how they acclimate their livestock.

 

[rkbisme]

Thanks to everyone for your imput. To be honest I never thought that stars were so delicate and have never gone through any extra steps in aclimation of them. The others I have in the tank have done just fine with my normal aclaimation process, I'll be sure and take the extra time and steps from now on.
Now the next task is a change over from cc to just sand....been reading a lot about it and have decided to get rid of the nitrate factory!
Thanks again.