Star Fish Help

[georgiasunflower]

Anyone please.. I bought a cleaner package from Saltwaterfish.com and it arrived yesterday. I split some with my son but kept most of it. The things that were included that I am having difficulty with are the starfish. Aside from algae growth, my water quality is good, with a recent partial change. The salinty, alkalinity, nitrite/nitrate, pH, Calcium, Hardness, Phosphates, etc are all within normal parameters.

The package included: 1 Orange Linckia Starfish; 2 Brittle Starfish; and 2 Serpent Starfish. The Serpent starfish died a few hours after being placed in the tank. It looked like they disintegrated! Pieces were everywhere and impossible to gather for return. :sad: Sadly one had already started losing legs from transport. The brittle stars looked GREAT this morning when I turned on the lights. Then a few minutes ago, I noticed that one of them had started falling apart. Leg by leg it just fell apart?! The remains are scattered around the bottom, most of it behind a rock. The other one seems fine so far, but I am very worried for him. IF I can do something to protect or save him, I want to know!

The orange Linckia is great. All of the crabs, shrimp, and clam seem to be doing fine. Does anyone have any idea what could have caused this? Again this morning, BOTH Brittle starfish looked excellent!

Thank you for you help!

 

[blind1993]

how did you intro the stars?

 

[georgiasunflower]

Typical Drip instructions from Saltwaterfish.com

 

[saltwater junky]

did you drip them

 

[sshindell]

Stars are often damaged in collection or transport. They initially look ok, but rapidly decompose due to injuries that were not obvious. The ones that make it last for a long time. I have blue linka in both my reefs, and they have been there for a long time. Prior to them I probably lost 1-2 in each tank within the first week, with the same acclimation period. It is really pretty hit and miss. They do need a long acclimation period, though.

 

[georgiasunflower]

Thanks! I guess I will have to wait and see. SHOCKINGLY, my husband noticed that the one Brittle star that I thought had completely shredded, was moving a bit. It is really sad, there are barely any legs remaining, mostly just a center piece body. My son (who does not have a tank) keeps telling me starfish can regenerate so it will be OK. I have to say I would be amazed - I understand they can regenerate but there really is so little of him there. My older son (the one with several reef tanks) keeps telling me to just leave them and see. I did drip (as mentioned above) and did all I can.

THanks so much for taking time to help, especially today! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[sshindell]

Unfortunately, they do not regenerate in an aquarium.

 

[saltwater junky]

i drip my stars for 4 hours

 

[seedless reefer]

Hmm...I've dripped all my stars for less than an hour.

I put them in a container with the bag water covering them, slow drip them until water volume doubles drain it back with a cup to just covering them and repeat.

All stars are doing fine.

1 blue Link
1 Sand sifter
1 Serpent
2 Brittles

 

[ms_ k]

I've seen that happen to brittle stars before when I moved my tank. One shed all of its arms, but it did regenerate them. It took a while, but they did grow back.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Stars have AMAZING regenarative abilities i the wild, but, unfortunately,. as steve said, we rarely see that in the aquarium. There are actually brittle stars that can fragment all their legs, parts of their central sdics, and their gonads, and regenerate them all! But, I digress. As stated, collection and rough shipping do in a lot of stars. And then quick acclimitization does in a majority of the remainder. Slow acclimitization aftyer buying froma reptuatble shipper is the best ascenario for mail order. However, I personally will only buy starts from LFS's, because you can eliminate a couple of those big causes for mortality. PS- reaerch your stars too, not many are suitable for aquariums.

 

[tdwyatt]

 

[georgiasunflower]

jmaneyapanda;103239 wrote: However, I personally will only buy starts from LFS's, because you can eliminate a couple of those big causes for mortality. PS- reaerch your stars too, not many are suitable for aquariums.

I have to agree with this and wish I had known prior to buying them in this package. I got amazingly lucky with the Orange star, it seems to be thriving! The Serpent Stars were already </em>falling apart when I opened them. Sadly within an hour after putting them in the tank they were dead. That was after what I thought was a suitable acclimation period. I would guess it was honestly only 2 hours. Maybe</em> 2 hrs 15 minutes. I had no idea it was not enough... The Brittle stars did last a 1 1/2 days. Well one of them did. What is <u>super</u> frustrating is that each star was in tiny pieces by the time they fully died. AND they of course were in areas that are next to impossible to get to - between huge rocks and the glass. There is NO way I can retrieve them for return so I have to eat it. It is frustrating because I did what I thought I had to.
I do want to thank you all for the advice. As usual everyone has been very helpful!
Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

 

[saltwater junky]

write them and explain to them what happened. they refunded 3 cleaners that died and got ate by my c rabs so its worth a shot.

 

[georgiasunflower]

saltwater junky;103597 wrote: write them and explain to them what happened. they refunded 3 cleaners that died and got ate by my c rabs so its worth a shot.

Thank you. I will try. I assumed, putting myself in their position, they would say in order to protect themselves against fraud they had to require 'bodies' be returned. Otherwise everyone could claim </em>they had a loss and get a refund or credit. I have to agree though, it can't hurt to try. THANKS!

 

[down and outman]

Last cleaner package I got from them had a couple brittle stars. One had lost most of his legs and the other wasn't too bad. The one grew new legs and is hiding behind some rocks. the other disappeared somewhere in the tank. I have about a 50% survival with most cleaner crews I order so I get a few from a LFS. Have better luck that way. All my fish from Saltwater.com have done well.

 

[georgiasunflower]

down and outman;103714 wrote: Last cleaner package I got from them had a couple brittle stars. One had lost most of his legs and the other wasn't too bad. The one grew new legs and is hiding behind some rocks. the other disappeared somewhere in the tank. I have about a 50% survival with most cleaner crews I order so I get a few from a LFS. Have better luck that way. All my fish from Saltwater.com have done well.

Sadly both Brittle Stars and both Serpent Stars died. THe Serpents did not last the first day. The Brittles held on for a little longer... I am THRILLED to say the Orange Licknia Starfish lives and is doing well. I have learned that some things are definitely better off purchased locally. I am very happy with the rest of the package. I haven't lost anything else except for a lettuce Nudibranch but the other two survived so that isn't too bad. All snails, crabs, and clam are doing well.