Help sea star wasting away

[baloutang]

Hi,

We bought a blue star fish about a week ago. I noticed that it was very healthy and we acclimated it gradually to our tank environment.
My tank is very healthy and everything is in check, however I noticed the other day, the blue star fish limbs started to get white near the tips and started to slowly waste away. The star fish is now down to 2 limbs out of the 5 it had. All the rest of it is some white substance.
I don't have a picture of it at the moment, but will post one soon. Anyone have an idea what it is or how to treat it? One of my initial thoughts at looking at the sea star was that another animal was attacking and eating it, but it doesn't appear to be the case.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[crzy4reefs]

When you acclimated this star fish was it out of the water when you put it in your tank. I know that some star fish are sensitive to being out of the water.

 

[greenbean36191]

Starfish aren't sensitive to air exposure, so no worries there. It's just an old myth from people grasping at straws to explain why their stars mysteriously died.

It sounds like your star was poorly acclimated somewhere along the chain of custody before it got to you. It can take up to a month for any damage from poor acclimation to show up, so there is really no way to judge whether the animal is healthy when its at the store unless you have them hold it for you for a few weeks.