Starfish Acting Strangely

[Mordinbar]

My new chocolate chip star, has rolled over onto his back and is spread wide open. I am assuming he is dying, which is very strange as none of the other inverts in the tank: Pencil Urchin, blue reef hermits, Nassarius, Turbo, and conch snails. Are showing any other signs of difficulty. All are eating and active. This is the 2nd Chocolate chip I have had, but the last one died about 5 months ago when I was out of town and my filter stopped running >.<. The tank has been cleaned up and doing beautifully since then.

I tried to feed him some frozen krill and he clsed up and moved away from me, definately still active but moving slowly and no matter how I orient him he will always return to his back.

I have placed carbon in the tank to try and remove any potential contaminants I cannot test for.

Water Parameters are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Calcium : 420
SG. 1.024
Phosphates: 0

It is only a 28 bowfront tank, but I feed him frozen food (Krill, silversides, fresh squid) to compensate for the lack of forage.

My quarantine tank is busted so I cant move him in there. I would rather remove him from the display tank than risk him nuking it if that is where this is headed.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[pengy666]

Not lots of help but may give a bit of insight, Only reason I posted it is because I just happened to be reading it at the minute,

It good to know a lot about them it may help

 

[Mordinbar]

Well. Just found some bad news... The digital thermometer I was using was somehow stuck, said the tank temp was 78F. Dropped in a glass one to make sure and got 84F!!! So Im currently working on chilling the tank. Did a 20% water change with 80F water (still high but didnt want to shock anything critically) and am floating bags of Ice. Anyone else have any ideas???

He does seem to be closing up a bit and looking better so hopefully this will fix the situation.

 

[Musho3210]

fans (with the side effect of heavy evaporation)
Chiller (with the side effect of lots of electricity used)

 

[Mordinbar]

Well I have a couple desk fans blowing on it right now, and its come down to about 82F in the last hour, so I dont think I need to worry about temperature shock. Its surprising how hot that tank got, I have no clue why... I dont even have my heater plugged in lol since room temp in my apartment is right at 76F and my Lights always keep it a couple degrees warmer than that.

 

[Musho3210]

how many powerheads, what powerheads, and how many watts, same goes with the skimmer?

 

[Mordinbar]

Skimmers:
MArineland Seaclone 150 Deluxe Skimmer. (Pump is Marineland MAxi-Jet either 900/1200) I cant find the manual atm.
(I also have a Red Sea Prizm Deluxe skimmer, I just moved to the larger one to get the extra skimming capabilities)

Powerhead:
Zoo-Med Powersweep 214 rotating powerhead rated at 160 gph.
Marineland Bio-Wheel 150 Hang on tank powerfilter.

Lighting:
65w 12k Daylight Compact Flourescent
65w True Actinic Compact Flourescent
Bulbs are on 10 hours a day

I run the tank open top for the extra cooling from gas exchange and air movement.

I live in North Dakota, so during the winter it gets freakin cold. As soon as the air temperature gets below 75F outside, I run a Marineland 100w thermostat controlled heater and maintain temps at 78F

 

[Musho3210]

well those powerheads dont seem like big heat up tank ones.... i dunno why your temp is so high then....

 

[SkiFletch]

An ambient temp of 78 is pretty hot... I know my own tank starts overheating if the ambient is much over 75F. Now I use big halides but I also use big fans. Remember, 80F watertemp is only 2F above ambient room conditions, that's really really close. Doesn't take much powerhead and light heat to get it up to 82 or even 84F...

Mordinbar, I'd reccomend pointing a fan at the lights during the summer months for heat

 

[Mordinbar]

Ok, I figured out a way to mount my desk fan on the back of the tank without risking knocking anything over or the fan falling into the tank. Tank temp is now down to 78.4 Which I am MUCH happier with. I turned my heater on, rather than risk over chilling the tank, so there should be no issue with it getting too cold.

On a sadder note, my Choc chip had definitely reverted to his previous behavior and I noticed some fairly progressive decomposition even though he was still moving. Some of his chocolate chips were even falling off. So unsure of the most humane way to anesthetize a starfish, I used the tried and true sodium bicarb to put him down Thinking about it now though, Sodium bicarb works by forcing a lack of Oxygen by CO2 production... I wonder how much effect that actually has on a starfish.. something to look into I guess.

Everything else seems to be happy so I think the problem should potentially be solved.

On a random note, does anyone know why I would be getting major Coralline algal growth in the J-tube of my protein skimmer and no where else in the tank??!

 

[littleme1969]

Hi Sorry to hear about you starfish
I always use Ice to put things to sleep. Put him in a container with some of the tank water. Then pour another 50% more of icewater. The also add cubes too over a half hour period. They just go to sleep due to the cold and eventually die