Orange marble starfish

[crystalz]

I recently purchased an orange marble star. One of its arms seems as though it is slightly 'rotting'? or dissolving. Does anyone know why this is the case and whether there is any way to treat it or not?

[Delphinus]

It's not really good news I'm afraid. Sometimes if stars are on the way out the arms fall off or disintegrate. Problem is nobody really knows what they eat, so either they adapt to whatever is available in our tanks, or they don't. :( AFAIK there's not really anything you can do. Sorry..

[christyf5]

Take the star out and cut its arm off with a pair of scissors, just above the rotting part and then put it back in the tank. Sometimes that helps and it will just heal over where you've cut it.

Is this a new addition? How long did you acclimate it for? If not a new addition have you had any salinity swings in the tank lately? These guys are pretty sensitive to salinity (and probably pH and a host of other things).

[Joe Reefer]

I can be pretty disheartening to watch these poor guys fade into nothing. I learned my lesson once now I try to stay away from these little guys.

[justinl]

if the star has not eaten anything for a while (not necessarily in your tank), it will obviously starve. unfortunately often when they starve they dissolve from the inside out so you dont notice until it's too late. by the time the exoskeleton is rotting from starvation, there isnt a lot of hope left.

if it's not starvation and just injury or disease or something, then yeah i would try the cutting method like christy suggested. keep an eye on water params

[Delphinus]

I can be pretty disheartening to watch these poor guys fade into nothing. I learned my lesson once now I try to stay away from these little guys.

I'm the same way. I had a blue linckia live for about 1.5 years and that's the best I've ever been able to manage with these kinds of stars, and although I hear of similar stories, I think you have to really get lucky to get that far.

On different occasions, I've tried 2 fromia's, 1 purple linckia, and a sand sifting star, and none of thise ever lived more than a couple months - just a slow gradual deterioration until they were gone. I stay away from the stars whose diets we don't know. CC stars, OTOH, at least we know what they eat, so if you're OK with the fact they're not reef-safe, can at least do well in an appropriate tank.

Back in December, a friend came to me and asked for a favour - could I babysit some critters from his boss's tank while they did a copper treatment to deal with some bad ick - it turned out one of the critters was a sand-sifting star. I knew right away this was a bad idea, but since they were stuck, I said, sure, I'll try my best. Even though I did a drip acclimation over 24 hours, the thing never moved in my tank - maybe 2-3". Within a week the tips were disintegrating. 2 more weeks after that it was completely dead. It just solidified in my mind - these things don't really belong in our tanks. If we don't know how to feed them, we probably shouldn't be surprised if they starve. :(

[Joe Reefer]

I had a red linkia and a fromia doing awesome, then I decided to add a sand sifting star to work over the sand bed. Next thing you know the linkia and fromia are rotting and eventually died. The sand sifting star lived on for a year or so but it to began to shrink and eventually disappeared.

[i have crabs]

i havnt had much luck with any reefsafe stars to live more than a year but ive had some predatory stars like generals and chocolate chips live for over 3 years so far.

[fortheloveofcrabs]

I had a red linkia for about 8 months, then it "rotted" away, just like yours. I thought something was attacking it at first. Sadly, I couldn't save the little guy - he just disappeared.

Sorry...

[fishoholic]

You people are scaring me!!!! We have a red linkia in our 120g right now. We have had him for almost a year, I don't want to think that soon I might find him rotting :sad: :eek:

[justinl]

well to be honest, i highly discourage sea stars in this hobby. like tony already pointed out, we don't even know what they eat! how on earth could we manage to properly care for these things. there are only a few we can care for, and those are fine, but the majority of stars are complete mysteries to us. i **** myself whenever i hear "what starfish can i keep in my nano?" :bad-word:

btw lickias are notorious for dying off quickly. over a few months in a tank is a good long time for them. blues are less hardy than the red but red is still not easy to keep alive long either.

[crystalz]

Since I started this thread I left the starfish alone and it is now doing fine.(makes me wonder about the tank I purchased it from.) The limb stopped dissolving and has now completely healed. Just over the last couple weeks this starfish has really started "cruising". Maybe I lucked out with this one.

[christyf5]

Great to hear!! :biggrin:

[goby1]

I've had a sand sifting starfish in my 46 g for more than four years. It's doubled in size and is very active. I've never had any issues (knock on wood).

[Pier Pressure]

Well I guess that explains why I have not seen my bright red star fish this month. He has been cruising around in my 28 gallon for about eight months and just recently I noticed I had not seen him in a while. I have been looking for him this past week and there is nothing.

So what happens to the bodies of these things? I have now had a red star fish as well as a false perc disappear, never to be seen again. No skeleton - nothing. Where do the bodies go?

Good news on your orange starfish. I hope he does well for you!

[michika]

I've also had a sand sifting star for a very long period of time, since I started in this hobby, and he's grown, does a great job of cleaning my sand. He used to never be able to keep more then 4 limbs at any given time, but now he looks more like a true star with 5 limbs.