Leg came off Orange Starfish

[Gregsgsr]

When a leg comes off does that mean he is going to die??? I just bought him?? He was all balled up in the bag on the way home from the fish store. I put him in the aquarium and his leg came off??? What does that mean???

 

[chris4869]

Congratulation. You'll have two of them.

 

[greenbean36191]

Some species can reproduce by dropping legs, but it's not very common in the hobby except with L. multifora. Typically it means that the star is on its way out.

 

[graveyardworm]

Seastars generally require a very long acclimation period. They are very senstive to salinity changes. Usually the neglect happens long before it arrives at the LFS so the star is doomed to die anyway. Then there's the issues of food. If the star has managed to do well and eveyone did their part to get it to you properly, It is poorly understood what many of them eat, and without alot of LR and grazing opportunties they slowly waste away over the course of several months to a year or even a bit longer in some cases.