Starfish Help!!!

[wallda]

Okay I am in the process of gradually building a 90 gallon reef tank and have had the saltwater and sand in there for a few weeks. The other day I bought a few pounds of liverock and dropped it in. At first I thought the live rock was just rock, not many critters and it turns out I got a lot of snails (8) and a star fish, now everything is still alive 48 hours later but what are the odds of the starfish surviving? Is there anything I can do to help him, remember this is a tank that has not yet cycled and there was NO acclimation it was just dropped in. I feel bad for him but can't think of anything to do besides try to catch him and even then I can't get back to the LFS for a few days
Any ideas????

 

[logan15]

the starfish wont likely make it through the cycle try and catch him i think but they are extremly sensitive creatures
good luck

 

[rook]

He might survive!!
Might!!
If you had the water and sand in the tank for a few weeks, and are slowly adding liverock, you may have enough bacteria in the water to avoid any extra ammonia spikes. Just make sure to add items slowly for a while so as not to cause a spike. Other than that just hope that the salinity shock does not kill the starfish.
Ophiura may have an oppinion, but I would think disrupting the fish now and placing it into another tank, even at the lfs, will just worsen the shock and increase the likelihood of the star dying.
This is just my thoughts though, I do not know for sure.

 

[jillian ayers]

Do you have any idea as to what type of starfish it is?

 

[fshhub]

describe teh star
is it a lil guy, maybe about the size of a quarter? brittle star, or smooth? white or black maybe?
Most stars cannot survive a cycle, but the lil guys taht often come on rock, are there and the rock is cured and fine, if this is the case, and the tank is cycled and the rock cured, it may be fine and even reproduce. The rock my one lfs sells has lots of nice lil whitish brittle stars, and they do fine.