I need a starfish expert asap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[juniorjose]

my starfish has been acting really weird latly. its a red knob starfish and it has not been very active as it used to be. it stays in one corner of the tank and buries itself in the sand pretty deep. today i saw it was deflated a lil and a bit darker than usual. and this is what i saw.

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heres a lil history of the tank.

its a fish only tank with a maroon clownfish and a blue damsel and two small hermit crabs. as some of u know ive been having problems with nitrates in this 12 gal tank. i have been doing about 3 gallon water changes everyday ever since wednesday, which i havent seen any improvement in parameter. it almost seems like something took a bite out of it, but theres nothing in there to have caused this.

ANY HELP? im going crazy I LOVE THIS STARFISH.

[bertoni]

I suspect it's dying. I don't know what the diet of these animals might be. What have you been feeding it? Nitrate won't cause them any harm. It's common for the nitrate level to bounce back up quickly after a water change, anyway.

I think the tank is overstocked, at least for the long haul. How big are the fish now?

[juniorjose]

no i dont think that 160ppm of nitrate is good for any of the inhabitants in the tank!! this was double checked by my lfs and i am trying to fix it by adding more live rock and replacing the bioballs. i have heard that starfish are sensitive to nitrates, it doesnt bother my fish at all though. the fish are not too big though, they are about from 1 inch to two.

I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!! what should i do?

here is my thread on my 12 gallon with all the info of wats been going on

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1782422

[juniorjose]

will it heal itself like most starfish?

[bheron]

unfortunately, along with what bertoni said, its probably starving. most starfish eventually starve to death in reef tanks. altho the red knobby is one of the more successful. ive never been successful in keeping any star - the reb knob was my best - all eventually perished.

[Octoshark]

Stars do often starve in reef tanks, and the fact that he is in a 12 gallon tank makes it even worse. 12 gallons means even less available food sources. I dont think this star should be kept in such a small tank, ever.

And are your nitrates seriously 160ppm? That is very bad.

[juniorjose]

i feed em like two pieces of prawn every other day. it used to eat it fine, but now it stopped...should i put it in his mouth and see if it eats it?

[bertoni]

If the animal doesn't want to eat, that's a serious issue. I suspect it needed some additional nutrients from its diet.

I doubt that nitrate is the problem. 160 ppm isn't all that high compared to many tanks, and I've never seen any actual data showing that starfish were sensitive to nitrate, although that might be possible.

How much live rock is in the system? I suspect overfeeding is the basic cause of the nitrate.

[juniorjose]

i got a piece of prawn and placed it under the starfish to see if it would eat it, but when i lifted it about a while ago it look untouched and it was still burying itself in the sand.
i checked my parameter and here they are:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NItrate:40-80ppm
NItrite:0-0.25ppm
ph:7.9

the nitrate got better then i thought. yesterday i did about 50% water change and that might have helped out.

what do these starfish eat usually?

bertoni: in the tank i have about 5 to 6 pounds of rock(most of it being base). yesterday i bought another 3 pounds to add to the tank. i left it in my other tank (30 gallon) to get some more bacteria for diversity.

[bertoni]

That's not very much filtration. I'd try to get to at least 15 lbs of live rock in the system.

[mndfreeze]

Other then what was already stated such as more filtration, what about the possibility that it requires a more varied diet and is having some sort of vitamin/mineral issue? It always strikes me as odd when I hear about someone feeding an animal only one specific food type that is not a man made item with tons of things blended together. I'm not familar with this stars natural diet, but it surely isn't eating only prawns in the wild.

IMO it might be to late if its not eating at this point, but fix the other obvious issues like filtration and look deeply into this specific stars natural habitat and diet. It's very possible it also eats algea/kelp/macro and your tank just doesnt have or cant provide said nutrients and those prawns only offer certain protiens, vitamins and minerals. You mgiht luck out and find out it just needs a kelp strip and isnt to far gone to nurse back.

[4218kris]

Originally Posted by juniorjose

i got a piece of prawn and placed it under the starfish to see if it would eat it, but when i lifted it about a while ago it look untouched and it was still burying itself in the sand.
i checked my parameter and here they are:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NItrate:40-80ppm
NItrite:0-0.25ppm
ph:7.9

the nitrate got better then i thought. yesterday i did about 50% water change and that might have helped out.

what do these starfish eat usually?

bertoni: in the tank i have about 5 to 6 pounds of rock(most of it being base). yesterday i bought another 3 pounds to add to the tank. i left it in my other tank (30 gallon) to get some more bacteria for diversity.

maybe try clam meat i hear that they eat that and a varied diet. your nitrates could have been higher then 160ppm since the meter only test that high bright red color right?

[Ron Reefman]

I keep quite a few stars and I feed them frozen clam (along with lots of other 'stuff' that the fish and corals don't grab when I feed them). But I have to specifically feed each star and then make sure they take it. I don't think any star would eat prawns in their natural environment unless it just stumbbled onto a dead one.

The bad news is, I've lost a couple stars over the years and once they quit eating I couldn't do anything to get them started again. Sorry.

Ron

[juniorjose]

Beroni: i know that tank does not have a lot of filteration in it right now. i am starting to add more live rock slowly not to start another cycle in the tank. (the nitrites are 0-0.25ppm right now).

mdfreeze: i feed it big pieces of prawn, but i also think that it eats the leftover on the floor of the tank of the normal food i feed the fish, and some of that has more vaired stuff in it. and i soak that in selcom.

4218kris: yes, when i tested the water it used to be bright red. but just when i tested yesterday it was a little bit more orang/red. so i know those water changes are helping. can the clam meat be from the supermarket that we normally eat?

ron: what made them quit eating?

guys i still think there might still be hope and i can save here. if i just new what to do that would be a great help. ill try and get some clam and see if she eats it. i can still see her tanticles moving around, so shes still alive.

[bertoni]

I wish you good luck with the starfish. For the time being, I'd do a lot of water changes, to help with water quality. I agree that food variety is key, but most starfish have unknown diets in the wild, so we can only guess as to what they need to stay alive. I'd stop all feeding for the fish for a couple of days, at least.

Lots of fresh carbon might help with some organics.

[mndfreeze]

Can you put the star in a quarantine tank that has perfect water and environment? Remove the tank variable?

[juniorjose]

Bertoni: thanks man for the help. i will keep doing water changes. i really hate that fact that everything ive added to that tank at one point ends up dying. i guess this is all a learning experiance that everyone goes through. i set up a 30 gallon tank on dec. everything is good there and i hope this doesnt happen to it, i really want to do it right this time. why do u say stop feeding? is this so it helps with nitrates? and how do i go about adding carbon and what type? yea im a newb...lol

mndfreeze: no i dont have a quarantine tank. ill i have is my 30 gallon that i stated in dec.28. in there i have a yellow damsel, turnos, hermits and other snails. and two pepermint shrimp.

i checked the starfish today but i didnt want to bother it so i didnt pick it up. its still burying itself, i guess to keep things away from eating it? i can see that she is really trying to survive but idk how to help her. do u guys think that this may be an infection or something other than starvation?

[bertoni]

The purpose of the water changes is to remove any possible toxins that might be causing a problem, and to keep the water quality a bit better. Carbon is easy to run with most hang-on filters or canisters. I used a Phosban reactor, which is handy, too.

The starfish might have an infection. I don't know enough about starfish biology to help much.

[Korrine]

You could try looking on here. It's given in an FAQ format. The typer types to the crew and the brackets throughout the paragraph are comments made by the crew.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/stardisf5.htm

If you want something easier to follow go all the way to the top box. You'll see FAQ's and Articles. The Articles are written text about the topic.