I have a problem

[svynx]

I feel like crap right now. Short story: I have a choco starfish which has been in every saltwater tank that I have owned. I was originally going with a FOWLR tank, so I wasn't worried about him eating my coral. Well, I've switched to a reef tank, and have had polyps in the tank for about 2 months. The starfish has just started to eat them. So, I put him in my sump...and reluctantly put him in my return section, which has about 10lb of live rock in it. While I was at work, it struck me that he might be of the "not smart" kind, and wander too close to the return pump (mag 9.5). Well, when I got home (about an hour ago) sure enough one of his arms was stuck, and he was blocking all flow to the display. I turned the pump off and pulled him out. His arm is in bad shape where it attaches to the main body. He isn't mangled from the prop, thankfully. The two adjacent arms are flatter than they used to be. And the worst part of it looks like a bulge/tumor on the damaged leg. I have now moved him into my fuge, which has no pumps in it at all. When I moved him, I looked at his underside, and everything looks ok exept of course for the one leg.
I'm really worried that I have doomed this guy. I know that starfish can regrow legs, but is this one too far gone?

 

[svynx]

Do any of you have an idea if this guy is going to live?

 

[philter4]

As long as you give him good water quality and enough food to recover it will be fine. The main problem you will have is if it gets infected. You may be able to treat with an antibacterial but I know nothing about how they react on invertabrates.

What I would do is take a sterile razor blade or sharp knife and cut the rest of the damaged arm so you have a clean cut and watch for infection. If the arm heals and you give it enough food it will regrow the arm. There are a lot of people who cut the arms off of their stars to feed harlequin shrimp, then rotate the stars so they don't have to kill the star and then reuse the star as the new arms grow.

Good luck, and hope it goes well.

 

[LauraCline]

So sorry about that, these guys are cool and they grow on you. I wouldn't cut it, I would just leave it. Why re-injure the area? Keep the water quality up and give him small pieces of Nori. They are pretty resiliant so all you can do is just give him the best chance and wait.

 

[REEF-n-Chicago]

I have always kept CC stars in the return section with no problem so dont feel to bad
He should recover with good water quality...

 

[svynx]

Update: I got home that night to find that he lost the damaged arm. I gave him a small piece of silverside and he seemed to take it without any problems.
Fast forward to today: I took a quick glance at him this morning before heading for work and the wound seems to be healing up a little. I'll feed him again today after work and see how things are going.
Thanks.

 

[philter4]

The reason for the cut is to prevent infection from rotting dead material that has no circulation. If some of the tissue is torn up and can't heal, bacteria will infect that area and spred. If the star looks like it is healing I would not do anything different, but removing the dead and decaying tissue can only help with the healing.