Purple star help!

[krafty2010]

A month ago, I purchased a gorgeous Purple Linckia Star.
I dripped him for around 4 hours, and he immediately was moving around.

This guy can move and groove. Every time I look at the tank (30 gallons, upgrading him to a 120) he is in a different spot. In the morning, hes often sprawled out across the front of the glass. During the day, he is usually found along the back wall.

Recently, I noticed that his central disc was more of a purple-white than the rest of his body which is a dark purple.
Today, I am panicking. His central disc is completely white and looks a bit worn away. Is this guy starving? Is there something I can do to help him? I am so worried to lose him, hes been so active and gorgeous since the day I bought him. Would be a terrible loss. Any help would be appreciated.

And please be kind, I know that he needs to be in a larger tank, with more rockwork. But this smaller tank is more established at the moment.

 

[hann1bal]

This is no help as I know nothing about star's but i would check my chemistry ASAP. and do a water change if its been awhile. Hope someone here can give you help.

bump

 

[krafty2010]

I normally do 5% every week (on saturdays) so I could do a water change tomorrow. I would have to push him down a little in the tank though because hes right at the top and when I turn the pumps off, the water drops about an inch.

I just got home from work (he hasnt moved since I left 7 hours ago) and going to do water tests.

Thanks. Still pretty worried about this guy.

 

[krafty2010]

Tested the water this morning

sg - 1.028
ammonia - 0-0.2
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 2
mg - 1470
ca - 380 (wish this was higher)
ph - 8
dkh - 7

Im going to do a topoff and try to get the salinity down a bit. Very slowly throughout the day.

He is active and on the front of the glass right now. I can see the under side of him and it does not appear to be affected like the front side of him is.
Would ideally do a water change but worried about any changes in water since any small change would be bad for him. I did place some dried seaweed next to him and he didnt seem interested in it last night. Not sure what exactly could be causing this.

 

[Betta132]

Looks like it's starving and starting to dissolve. That isn't just "a bit worn away", those are his guts.

 

[Nina51]

have to agree with betta. it's also troubling that you have an ammonia reading in your tank. what test kit are you using?

has your salinity been this high all along? besides lack of food for the star, that could be part of the problem.

 

[krafty2010]

I'm using red sea test kits. I couldn't really tell which color it looked more like on the scale so I wrote that it was 0-.2 but I'm sure its at 0. Just didn't want to rule anything out yet and its difficult to tell which color it is sometimes because the colors are so similar so I considered it "in between".

He's still moving around. And I placed some seaweed under him and he moved away. Any other food that he may be interested in? Or better feeding technique.

 

[Nina51]

this is a long read but full of information...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/5/inverts

i am in the camp that thinks these stars should be left in the ocean. i don't think they do well in anything other than a very, very large and very, very established tank. we just don't know enough about them to properly care for them.

 

[krafty2010]

Thanks for that link. It does have a lot of good information. As of today, the star is still acting normal. On the back wall during the day and was roaming the front glass during the night/early morning.

This may be a silly question. But I haven't seen him on the rocks in a few days, is there any possibility that this guy keeps going in a circle on the glass and never comes in contact with the rock so he doesn't find food that he needs? Just trying to think of anything.

 

[Nina51]

i don't know this for certain but my understanding is that they live mostly off of film algae that would be found on the glass.

 

[krafty2010]

Hmm, okay thanks. Trying to learn everything I can (although that article explains pretty well that there is not much known about these guys). I would have taken him to the LFS by now if I wasn't worried about moving or touching him. Still cruising the tank. No changes in activity or the erosion of his body.

 

[krafty2010]

Liveaquaria says this about feeding "In the aquarium, the diet should be supplemented with dried seaweed, and small pieces of clam meat or tablets can be placed under the sea star."

I tried the seaweed and it doesnt seem to be interested. But not really sure what it means by "tablets"?

 

[snorvich]

Looks like it's starving and starting to dissolve. That isn't just "a bit worn away", those are his guts.

They starve to death, especially quickly in small tanks.

 

[pagojoe]

Yup. And you can disregard the business about placing seaweed, clam meat, or "pellets" under the sea star. It might accidentally ingest some of that stuff, but it isn't likely to postpone starvation for very long.