Starfish help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[larryndana]

Well alot going on here. First i would say never get advice from your lfs again, and i would look for another one close by for any other needs. As for the starfish, yes you should have fed him. Of course starfish can sometimes make a recovery, so if he's still in there give him some food and see what happens....but it may be over already. As far as acclimation, it is possible to see problems with a starfish weeks after due to acclimation. I should say here again, not to trust your lfs. This site as some great info on everything, look into the achives and faq forum for anything. Ok now your clown, an anemone is not a must have with a clown. A clown will survive without one. Next, cycling with fish is not a good idea. I'd say strike three for your lfs. Like stated above a piece of raw shrimp will do the trick. What kind of Damsels are they, what will you do with them now? ....as a side note, when lfs say you should cycle with fish....they are looking to make money....
as far as your lfs store....you should go back and tell them their acclimation for the star was not correct and that it needed to be spot fed. among other things you should say, like they should buy the damsels back at full price if you don't want them. next, don't use your tap water any more....distilled will work fine.
bonita69 is correct about the water changes, and i would get the undergravel filtration out now.

 

[sleasia]

sea stars are very sensitive to drops in salinity....there is another possibility though, and that is that the butterfly fish , or hermits, or something else was nibbling on the star...and also it could be that the calcium was high./

 

[mpls man]

IMO you added a star WAY too early..for my 75 i have at least 140 lbs of live rock, and my tank was well estebulashed for over 4 yrs before i added my blue linka, hes been going for over 2 yrs now most stars need a lot of rock to feed on, and a very well maintained tank ,and at least (100 lbs) as others have stated, i also drip acclimated mine for 4-5 hours...and did a lot of reasearch from this website, there a lot of very knowledgeable members for information, good luck read,read,read.

 

[allyric]

Thank you all for the help you are all very helpfull. What I need to know is what is next. I'll remove the underground filtration slowly not to stress out nemo then, I'll do the water changes as stated above and get the readings all to 0. Then get the live rock and start adding? The 29 gal tank hasn't gone through the entire process yet. Can I put the left over Rock in there so that I can only add a few pieces in to the main tank at a time. This would be so that I could buy a bulk all at once off this site. Then is there an acclimation for live rock before I put it into the tank or can you just rinse it off and place them into the tank slowly piece by piece over a month period. Putting the clown and butterfly in the 29gal I don't believe is an option. The damsels are very aggressive even to each other. 3 of them are blue with the yellow tail, one is silver w/ 2 black stripes and the other is Black with two white dots, and he is getting huge fast. I haven't thought about what to do with them after this tank cycles. Id like to keep 2 of the blue ones though and put them back in the main tank after it is fully established, if that is possible. LPS said they would take them back but with no credit(Imagine that). As for the bed I don't have sand I have crushed rock that is supposiblly just right for coral tanks, per LPS. But at this point I am doubting everything they told me. Do I need to put down a layer of sand over the rocks and if so what type. Im sorry I have so many questions, I use to have someone I would call and ask but They are no longer an option. If anything I think they set me back a month or two.

 

[mpls man]

Originally Posted by allyric

Thank you all for the help you are all very helpfull. What I need to know is what is next. I'll remove the underground filtration slowly not to stress out nemo then, I'll do the water changes as stated above and get the readings all to 0. Then get the live rock and start adding? The 29 gal tank hasn't gone through the entire process yet. Can I put the left over Rock in there so that I can only add a few pieces in to the main tank at a time. This would be so that I could buy a bulk all at once off this site. Then is there an acclimation for live rock before I put it into the tank or can you just rinse it off and place them into the tank slowly piece by piece over a month period. Putting the clown and butterfly in the 29gal I don't believe is an option. The damsels are very aggressive even to each other. 3 of them are blue with the yellow tail, one is silver w/ 2 black stripes and the other is Black with two white dots, and he is getting huge fast. I haven't thought about what to do with them after this tank cycles. Id like to keep 2 of the blue ones though and put them back in the main tank after it is fully established, if that is possible. LPS said they would take them back but with no credit(Imagine that). As for the bed I don't have sand I have crushed rock that is supposiblly just right for coral tanks, per LPS. But at this point I am doubting everything they told me. Do I need to put down a layer of sand over the rocks and if so what type. Im sorry I have so many questions, I use to have someone I would call and ask but They are no longer an option. If anything I think they set me back a month or two.
as for having a butterfly in a reef tank is something i dont think you can have , they may nip at corals.
the black &wt damsel are domino damsel, they can be very dominant and grow to be mean, i would advise getting rid of him.
with the CC(crushed coral) i would switch over to all sand, cc and be a huge nitrate trap, not to many other people would advise it, easy to switch over just take out as much of the cc as you can and replace with live sand, trust me you wont go back..i've been there.

what do you have for filteration...sump, skimmer, ?

 

[allyric]

I have on the back a double filtration hang on and I have a protein skimmer comming with new T5 lighting 4 bulbs. What type of sand do I need to get and were do you get it.Also Do you have to vacuum sand during your water changes like you would do with the rocks? Do you know about the live rock situation I posted above. Is it ready to go in the tank when you recieve it? of course just a few aweek but I can keep them in my other tank till then.
Does anyone have an answer for these questions?
Again thank you all for your help in this.

 

[allyric]

I will start a new thread on getting my tank up to the standards were it needs be. I think I may have found a new LPS. What do you all think about Feeders supply are they OK for asking questions. Of course I will always order my stuff from now on here. Also for future refrence were do get the silversides and what exatly are they, and are they frozen?

 

[thud]

Originally Posted by allyric
I have a choc. starfish and his legs are begining to turn white on the edges. Has anyone ever seen this before. Water par. are just right and everything else in tank is doing OK. I know my lighting is down but could that do it. Yesterday he was hanging on the heater on the back of the tank. The temp. for the tank is 78. Its a 55gal long tank with three large live rocks 1 marron clown, and one spotted butterfly fish. LFS told me not to worry about feeding him that he would eat on his own around the tank. The tank is about 7months old. Ive had the starfish for about 2months.

Relax, it just doesn't want to be chocolate anymore, it's slowly becoming a vanilla starfish.
It's similar to Michael jacksons story.
It's not surprising that the legs fell off, Michaels nose has fallen off quite a few times as well right guys?
This is an identity issue.