What's eating my starfish?

[coralreeferhead]

Do crabs eat starfish? I only have a few in my tank, but for whatever reason anytime I put a starfish in my tank, I see it go from healthy to short or missing limbs in like a week. I also have nassarius snails. Could they be the culprit?

[J. Montgomery]

I'd suspect that it wasn't acclimated properly somewhere between capture and you, and its dying from the shock. Not likely an injury from a predator.

[coralreeferhead]

The same problem every time. The legs get shorter and shorter and then at some point I never see the starfish after that.

[Jeff]

Maybe you have a harlequin shrimp in your tank.

[coralreeferhead]

I've had the same system going for almost five years now, I rearrange my rock kinda often and bought all my rock at once. I had never considered the harlequin theory. You'd think I would have seen it some time. How could I tell if this was the case? I doubt that its the case but everything is worth a shot.

Is it at all possible it would be my nassarius snails or crabs? I love starfish, and aside from crabs and snails, everything else thrives in my tank.

What's a reefer to do?

[coralreeferhead]

A quick history of my starfish attempts. (All drip acclimated)
- 3 linkia (little red guys)
- 1 sand-sifting star
- 2 brittle star
- 1 serpent star (4")
- 2 small serpent stars

except for the brittle stars, these were added individually over probably 3 years or so.

The really weird thing is that for a couple years, my tank boomed with these little white ones that were random shapes/# of arms. But now I have these tiny white ones that look like serpent stars.

Why is it that my tank can create them but I can't add them? If I drip acclimate and got all those from different sources, what am I missing?

[greenbean36191]

Josh already gave you your answer. You don't have a predator. You have stars that are dying in a very typical manner due to osmotic damage. The stars go through several steps before they get to you and failing to acclimate them properly at any step along the way can do them in. Very few exporters and wholesalers, or even retailers for that matter, take the time to drip acclimate newly arrived stars. Many shops also keep their salinities low for various reasons, so even if they are properly acclimated, issues can still arise. Of course, the same is true if you keep your salinity below about 1.024. Below that, all the careful acclimation in the world won't matter.

Also, the tank you have listed is much too small to keep any of the reef safe stars aside from serpent and brittle stars. Any that did make it past the first few weeks would likely starve to death within the first 18 months or so.

[coralreeferhead]

Dont starfish eat whatever you feed the tank (mysis, other protein foods?) I will be setting up my 75 this summer, do you recommend any conscious vendors good for starfish?

I drip acclimate per instructions @ the link below:


http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/acclimation.php

[J. Montgomery]

Originally posted by coralreeferhead
Dont starfish eat whatever you feed the tank (mysis, other protein foods?)

Serpent and brittle stars do. Others do not.

[greenbean36191]

The only reef safe star aside from brittle and serpent stars that is likely to last long-term in a 75 gallon tank is Linckia multifora. All of the others, even the small Fromia need larger, well established tanks.

There's no way to recommend a trustworthy retailer either because the potential problems are along the entire chain of custody from the ocean to you. Even responsible retailers have very little control or oversight over what goes on before the animal gets to them. Plus most retailers buy from multiple wholesalers, which in turn buy from multiple exporters depending on who has what they're looking for. As a result, one retailer might get healthy stars one week, but get unhealthy ones the next because their wholesaler bought from a different exporter. The only way to ensure that you get a healthy animal is to buy locally and have the shop hold it for about 2 weeks. At that point if it looks plump and firm and free of lesions then it's probably fine. If they're unwilling to hold it or you don't have a local source then it's really just a gamble and any source is about as good as any other.