Problem with Scoly

[firemountain]

Yesterday I noticed a long, thin leg coming out from the underside of the fleshy part of the Scoly. It appears though a brittle star may have somehow found its way into the Scoly between the flesh and the base of the coral.

Since then I have noticed that the Scoly appears to be a bit more shriveled up than normal.

My question is that if this is the case....would the brittle star hurt the Scoly where it would cause it to die?

Would me dipping the coral cause more harm than good.....because now I have a dead brittle star buried underneath the fleshy part of th Scoly. I am hoping tha the brittle star will just leave and move on.

here is a shot....You can clearly see a little leg on the underside of the Scoly's flesh in the shadowed portion of the pic

Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[firemountain]

Here is a second pic

 

[rt67ghy]

Personally, I would do a coral dip to kill it and then tease out the brittle star gently.

 

[firemountain]

I normally run my Revive Coral Dip at like 1/2 strength with good results. Something is telling me that this time around I should probably run it full strength.

I am just concerned that if I kill it with a dip, and can't get the brittle star out, that I will now have a decomposing brittle star inside the Scoly, which is not good.

 

[scooter31707]

I use Revive at double strength on my all my corals. Instead of during 4caps to every 1 gallon, I do 4 caps to every 1/2 gallon.

 

[SaltyWalter]

i really dont think 1 dead brittle star will cause much trouble... how big is the starfish assumed to be? If its one of those little micro ones the size of a half dollar the i cant see why that would effect anything.

 

[tbacon]

I would put some silversides out on the sand bed to get the star fish out then take the scoly out and put some glue around the edges to seal off the flesh thats just my 2 cents though