Sand Sifting Star

[13thmonkey]

ok ive got a sand sifting star about 2" in my 55. its been in there for about 3 months, and its been fine. but in the last week i have noticed the tips of his arms seemed not as defined or as pointy. in the last two days somthing happend. not sure what. i looked at him three minutes ago and noticed he is down to three arms and a nub. i picked him up and he is still alive. what could have gotten him? my LFS(minimum wage employee) says he might have hit a pocket of ammonia......(testing for that).........my test reads 0.0. he also said that there is no way it could be any of my fish. but thats what it looks like to me, or some kind of animal. so here is what i have stocked in there long nosed hawk, two ocelaris, yellow tailed damsel, neon dottyback, (A TEMPORARILY HOUSED)small yellow tang, 6 dwarf hermits, and an emerald mithrax crab. no sign of bristle worms. PLEASE any help would be appreciated.

 

[SkiFletch]

Strange, none of those fish would really be starfish eaters. Is your rock stack stable? If not, shifting rocks could have pinched off an arm or two. And just because you dont have any signs of bristleworms doesnt mean they're not there... Could be that it hit a pocket of ammonia/cyanide in your sand bed itself, but thats doubtful unless your sand is 2" deep or more

 

[Lynden]

This is going to sound dumb, but Starfish occasionally shed their arms "just because".

Do you know if your tank has any larger cryptic critters? Like a hairy Crab or Stomatopod (Mantis Shrimp)? Those two would have no trouble tearing an arm off a Starfish. That's the reason I ended up with my Carribean Red Hermit Crab; he was wreaking havoc in a dealer's tank and was placed into a jar until sold.

-Lynden

 

[13thmonkey]

rock are good. substrate is about 4-5" no signs of mantis shrimp. i dont know about hairy crabs. i dont know their habits. i had a jaw fish in the tank two days ago that since has jumped out commiting sucide. could the jawfish have been eating on the star as he went by. also if i do have pockets of ammonia could they be gotten rid of by using my reverse flow kits and my undre gravel filter?

 

[13thmonkey]

Somthing got it in the night. woke up this morning to find two tips of arms the rest has been eaten.

 

[SkiFletch]

Sorry man, that sucks

 

[N1z]

dont starfish loose their arms by bad water quality or not enough food? well thats with blue and red stars, but tbh seems strange i have one and put it in fesh sand like hour old and he survived to date.

 

[Opcn]

Pull him out now, he is dying

If it were just one arm it could have been an accident or something like that, but the fact that its been progressive and that hes now missing more than one limb says that its his death throws, and that all of the nasty stuff hes accumulated in his body from eating off the bottom of your tank and werever he came from is being released into your water. Echinoderms are bade of little osicles, flecks of bone, connected by muscle, as the starfish dies the muscles fall off and they fall apart bit by bit, even though he can still move he is going to slowly disapear untill there is nothing left, get him out now!

 

[13thmonkey]

hes been dead and no trace of him for several days. when i found out he was dead he was a little more than a couple scraps. to late to pull him out. whats that going to do to the tank now?

 

[SkiFletch]

If he was eaten and its been a few days, you might be OK as the organisms that ate him will digest his toxins. Just keep an eye on the tank, you'll know if something goes wrong. When decomposing starfish toxins enter a tank, they pretty much nuke it and kill everything, or they're digested and everything does fine

 

[13thmonkey]

its been three days all my inverts are doing fine my nem is doing great all coral is florishing. i believe my hermits got the body and chowed as far as i have seen all hermits are accounted for but i will keep posting what ever i see.

 

[SkiFletch]

three days later and you should be fine