with a little help from my friends....

neibotlai

neibotlai

New Member
so i have a starfish in my set up, for the past 5 months or so. when i first put him in the tank he lost one "point" with in a few days . i was worried but he seemed ok, i figured it was stress or something. now in the past 2 weeks he lost 1& 1/2 more of his points leaving only 2 1/2. he scoots around his color is good, he is just deteriorating. nothing else in the set up is showing sings of problems. lots of LR i have a 3 strip-an orange goby-Picasso trigger- spotted panther grouper-and about 20 random crabs and some snails. average of 3'' LS. the 100 gal aquarium was left to run with LR LS and inverts for almost a year before we started to put attraction fish in. the water spiked several times but has maintained stability for a while now. i dont have a subfuge yet, but its on the list.
my specs are
sp gravity 1.026
temp was 81 now 78
nitrates spiked to off the charts but now zero or close to
ph 8.2
phosphate a little off at .5
kh a little high @ 16
calcium 440 or so
we do plan on adding a puffer probably the porcupine but maybe the stars and stripes any thoughts suggestions to help the starfish and to add to this set up.
solidarity
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Just a heads up: The trigger should soon be eating most of your inverts, a puffer will too. The grouper is a great fish when small; but he'll outgrow your tank very quickly, they get huge (18-20").I'm not sure which gobies you have, they go by many names; but I'd expect the grouper to eat them eventually.I'd do some serious research on anything you plan to add, then buy.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Agree - no starfish is suitable for a tank with triggers and large puffers. They are natural predators of seastars and many other inverts.
I am not sure what you mean by points on the star - the arms, or is it a chocolate chip star that lost some "chips?"
Seastars require very very stable mature tanks - if you have an issue with water quality, that could definitely cause long term issues. Other stars do not do well in our tanks and tend to starve in 6 months to ayear.
 
small triggers

small triggers

Active Member
unfortunently, a tank with any messy eater is not good for a starfish. We tend to have high phos or nitrate readings which kill starfish, some just disintegrate, some lose arms, but eventually it will just die.
 
neibotlai

neibotlai

New Member
i figured it was nitrates messing with the starfish. i need to build a sump.
as for the the spotted or panther grouper, i was told he would live just fine in the 100 gal, . and that he could live with a trigger and maybe a few other tougher fish. i was also told that if i did decide to convert to a reef from fowlr i could with what i have swimming right now ... is this bs? i know th e grouper is a predator. but 20'' seems pretty big com paired to what i was told. maybe 20'' in the ocean, or in a 500 gal...right? i mean i dont mind having an aquarium like that...well id have a hard time selling the idea to the lady of the house...i suppose a 10'' fish is cool....but i like the idea of other fish in the aquarium. have i sealed the deal with this one fish? i really dont want something that is going to get that big realistically. i dont know i guess i was told it may get that big but not very common in home aquariums, i dont recall that. .
 
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