blue star fish

[donkey77]

got a blue star fish the other day and its now day 5 and still have not seen him, i know where he is, on the backside of a rock he hasn't move from there yet, should i be worried

[howdy20012002]

linkias don`t move around alot typically...so it is probably fine.
however,
they are notoriously picky for acclimatizing.
do you slowly drip it and do you see any detoriation on the starfish

[pinkreef]

WHEN THEY DIE THE SMELL IS PUTRID. SO IF YOUR TANK SMELLS OK
HES PROBABLY OK
:sleep:

[craigwmiller]

When healthy they move in spurts -- my burgundy linckia goes through days at a time of not moving at all, and then like it's late for the bus gets it's move on for hours or days... back and forth, very interesting creatures!

That said, as Neal mentioned -- how you acclimated him/(it) to the tank will greatly depend on how it's actually doing... Did you do a slow drip (say 2 hours)?

I like to compare PH & Salinity of the source water to my tank, and slowly drip (removing water as needed) until the parameters match as close as possible... I do this with all life I bring in, but with inverts I do it slower. (temperature should be matched first by floating the bag for say 10-15 minutes).


Cheers,
Craig

[donkey77]

i did about 45 min, i watch him move to this rock and has not moved since

[craigwmiller]

You will probably not know the full health of the star for at least 2 weeks (though true of any star you add -- they are just finicky and can still be moving around while starting to melt away, OR can be totally motionless and be perfectly happy).

Leave him be, there's nothing you can do at this point except keep the water as stable as possible (but this is always the goal right? :biggrin:)... If you find a water parameter that's not quite where you want it -- don't drastically change it - gradually make the change over the course of a couple weeks.

[Delphinus]

In my experience it takes days to weeks even for echinoderms to really get active after being moved into a tank. Also as stated it kind of goes in spurts.

If you don't see any deterioration or disintegration (or arms falling off) then it's best to leave it be for now.

[Baldy]

I had a little piece of one arm fall off shortly after adding my linkia but he's been pretty active and doing well ever since. I've had it for about 2 months now and I always see him in different places every time I look at the tank.