Starfish help ASAP

carraudio

New Member
I got a chocholate chip star fish the other day. What should I be feeding it??? It isn't looking so good.
 

krazekajin

Active Member
chocolate chip starfish are predators. They can eat meaty foods as well as open up hermits, clams, and snails. They also will eat corals if you have it in a reef tank.
How long did you aclimate it? Starfish need very long acclimation times.
 

carraudio

New Member
it was about 3 hours. So can I feed it small shrimp peices???
and it does not move around alot either.
 

reefforbrains

Active Member
choc chips are agressive, never really had any problems with them going after coral, but clams are doomed with a choc around.
I got rid of mine a while back because it gets expensive feeding 50$ clams to a 5 dollar starfish. Never fed anything special, they just kinda do thier own thing wandering around given there is enough shmutz for them to find. They are scavengers for most part
 

1journeyman

Active Member
Ophiura is the resident Star expert. Before she gets here let me ask the basic questions:
How long has tank been up? Size? Water flow?
What kind of water are you using?
How did you acclimate?
Ammonia?
Nitrite?
Nitrate?
Other tankmates?
 

carraudio

New Member
How long has tank been up? Size? Water flow? 5months, 10g low water flow
What kind of water are you using?
How did you acclimate? left it in the bag in the tank for 3 hours
Ammonia?
Nitrite?
Nitrate?
Other tankmates? crab shrimp snail 2clown hawkfish
 

psusocr1

Active Member
choc. ship stars as mentiond will eat any corals you have, any clams, any inverts if they can catch them etc.
they will be very active when looking for food but when eating less active.
you can feed them anythign from shrimp, clams, squidd, octo, saltwater fish such as silversides etc. etc. they will also extend their arms at the top of the tank to try and catch some flake food or seaweed.. this is what i feed all of my predatory stars
you should have floated the star for about two hours then drip acclimated the star for about another 2 hours, but its too late now and hopefully will be fine.
the tank is also way too new for a starfish at only 5 months, but once again its too late now and hopefully it will be alright
 

ophiura

Active Member
We need to know ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity and definitely specific gravity. If you don't know these, well there is a problem no doubt.
Seastars in general need much larger, much more mature tanks. They are some of the most delicate animals to keep, and very very sensitive to parameters. PLEASE get these parameters, ASAP.
 
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