marble starfish help

[victor_c3]

My orange marble starfish looks like he is disintigrating.

I placed a 2.5" orange marble starfish in my aquarium yesterday. He looked healthy enough yesterday and even this morning, but about 5 hours ago I noticed that one of his legs was getting a little thinner in just one spot. Then, about 2 hours ago, that spot that was thinning started lose some flesh. Then about 1 hour ago, the half of the leg located below the spot losing flesh looked limp and fell off.

Now, another one of his legs is starting to look thin in an area.

Any ideas on what is going on? It looks like whatever is happening to him is happening really quick.






For some background:

I started my tank just after christmas and have had my live rock curing for about 2-2.5 months. I finally made the first additions to my tank yesterday:

1x marble starfish
1x blue tuxedo sea urchin
8x zebra hermits
8x various snails
3x soft corals
1x small ocelaris clown fish (tank bred)

With he exception of the starfish, everything else seems to be doing just fine. You can visibly see where the urchin has been eating his way accross the live rock, the hermits are all very active, the snails are all active and eating, the clownfish has no fin rot or other obvious issues and is eating, and all three of the corals are fully open and happy.

 

[greenbean36191]

It sounds like the star is suffering from osmotic shock from a quick change in salinity. There is nothing you can do at this point. In such a small, new tank, it was unlikely to do well long term anyway.

 

[victor_c3]

not quite what I wanted to hear...


I never meant to purchase an animal that wouldn't fare well in my tank on purpose. Unfortunately, lesson learned the hard way.