Red seastar tissue recession?

[Jeremy1988]

Hi there, I have a red lincka I bought from a LFS about a month ago. It had at the time some damage to one of its limbs. It was just a small spot and it was kind of a whitish color. Looked like something had maybe picked at it. Anyways...it looks like it has slowly spread but there is a clear defiance where it now ends. It looks sort of like it you pealed the skin back from a human and it was just the bone on him. It looks like his "scales" if thats what we want to call it are removed and its the under layer. The star itself seems healthy...tightly closed mouth, and seems to be moving around nicely...any ideas on whats going on? Is he just loosing the dead tissue from an injury and rebuilding new stuff? Hopefully the weblink works

http://s1360.photobucket.com/user/jeremybock1979/media/sea star_zpsclzti0jv.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

[Ron Reefman]

IMHO, the trade should be banded from selling Linkia sea stars to anybody with less than 5 years of experience in the hobby. My best guess is that 95% of all Linkia stars that get sold, end up dead in less than 3 months.

There is little if anything that you can do at this point. Just don't buy a replacement... ever!

Sorry for the bad news.

 

[norfolkgarden]

+1 on the Linkia. Almost always a bad idea.

Try a red fromia star instead, but only if your tank is over a year old with lots of live rock. The Red Fromia starfish is still delicate. Just not nearly impossible.
Our 2 red fromias in a 75 gallon tank with 200 pounds of live rock are now 6 months old and look good, very slowly wandering around the tank.
The small orange Linkia we had lasted 4 months and was constantly moving around (desperately looking for food?). The Linkia may still be alive and happy and hiding in one of the hundreds of spots that I cannot see in between the live rock, but I have not seen it in over 3 months.

I use serpent Stars to sort of replicate the octopus that I cannot have in my tank. The serpent Stars can be fed regular meaty food and are not impossible to keep alive.

 

[Jeremy1988]

IMHO, the trade should be banded from selling Linkia sea stars to anybody with less than 5 years of experience in the hobby. My best guess is that 95% of all Linkia stars that get sold, end up dead in less than 3 months.

There is little if anything that you can do at this point. Just don't buy a replacement... ever!

Sorry for the bad news.

Thanks

 

[Jeremy1988]

+1 on the Linkia. Almost always a bad idea.

Try a red fromia star instead, but only if your tank is over a year old with lots of live rock. The Red Fromia starfish is still delicate. Just not nearly impossible.
Our 2 red fromias in a 75 gallon tank with 200 pounds of live rock are now 6 months old and look good, very slowly wandering around the tank.
The small orange Linkia we had lasted 4 months and was constantly moving around (desperately looking for food?). The Linkia may still be alive and happy and hiding in one of the hundreds of spots that I cannot see in between the live rock, but I have not seen it in over 3 months.

I use serpent Stars to sort of replicate the octopus that I cannot have in my tank. The serpent Stars can be fed regular meaty food and are not impossible to keep alive.

I meant to say it was a red fromia star...not a red lincka sorry. It has the black tips at the end of it...well I looked at it this morning...its sort of weird...it kinda looks like its repairing itself. It looks like it has got a bit of brighter coloration where the what I call "Bone" part would be. So it would be sort of like it you pulled the meat off a rib bone that you cooked...well pretend that the skin slowly is growing back. To me thats what it looks like...it still has his feelers at the bottom of him...he is still moving around. I'm about to go out of town for a few days for the holidays. So I will try to give an update later on. Was anyone able to see my picture? Either way it was already damaged when I got it, and got a "discount" on him...so it very well could have been on its way to its death long before I came around. Who knows, I'm sure in 5 days I will know much more!!! I'll try and get my pet setter to send pics. She pretty good about that stuff.