apercele79
New member
When i went to bed last nite he had all his limbs, but this morning not so much lol
Rough night for my starfish
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apercele79
New member
they supposedy grow their limbs back, time will tell
AirForceAquariu
Member
Look in to "starfish wasting disease" or something along those lines. Seems to happen in our tanks to some starfish though it also seems to be little understood. Could also have been a powerhead?
My brittle star has been with me 6 months which I would consider success so I am content. I always make sure he gets some food to prevent him starving. He will eat from tongs if it's shrimp.
My brittle star has been with me 6 months which I would consider success so I am content. I always make sure he gets some food to prevent him starving. He will eat from tongs if it's shrimp.
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hotelbravo
Active member
brittle stars seem to be more resistant to this desease than the other star species
reeferstace
I'm a little people
Why is this funny?
Starfish and brittle stars are in different taxanomic classes. They are no more alike than reptiles and mammals.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
hotelbravo
Active member
He was stating that his brittle star is doing good I was just trying to explain that brittles are hardy and that was why his was doing good. Sorry for getting their scientific classifications wrong. Very interesting information though.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Actually, the relationship between brittle and generic stars isn't that significantly off.
Instead of being split into seperate phylums (reptiles to mammals) they split at the class, with Asteroidea being generic stars, and ophiuroids, which are the brittles.
I didn't bother to double check my info but I think urchins also split at the class.. I may be wrong and confusing the subphylum, dunno.
In regardes to disease resistance, it's actually not any different. The disease can still apply from what I've seen in a few threads posted months back. However we know regardless, the case of the brittle being unharmed and the sand sifter melting is due to the sand sifter starving with it's much more difficult requirements in comparison. Brittles aren't as diet specific (well not really diet specific.. sandsifters eat what's in the sand just they eventually run out) as sand dwellers.
Instead of being split into seperate phylums (reptiles to mammals) they split at the class, with Asteroidea being generic stars, and ophiuroids, which are the brittles.
I didn't bother to double check my info but I think urchins also split at the class.. I may be wrong and confusing the subphylum, dunno.
In regardes to disease resistance, it's actually not any different. The disease can still apply from what I've seen in a few threads posted months back. However we know regardless, the case of the brittle being unharmed and the sand sifter melting is due to the sand sifter starving with it's much more difficult requirements in comparison. Brittles aren't as diet specific (well not really diet specific.. sandsifters eat what's in the sand just they eventually run out) as sand dwellers.
AirForceAquariu
Member
Welp... apparently I started an argument. I simply tried to point out a few reasons why his starfish might be losing limbs. Most likely was starvation or disease brought on by such and I offered an alternative option that it might be physical trauma caused by equipment.
I then proceeded to offer a personal anecdote about success (in my opinion) in keeping a starfish in case apercele wanted to try again. I thought that casually making my point was acceptable, but I will be sure to be a bit more didactic in future.:lol2::frog:
I then proceeded to offer a personal anecdote about success (in my opinion) in keeping a starfish in case apercele wanted to try again. I thought that casually making my point was acceptable, but I will be sure to be a bit more didactic in future.:lol2::frog:
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Sand wasn't new though, basicly the star lived in a system with a new sandbed, and then was moved into another system with a renewed supply of sand full of food.
One thing alot of people misunderstand when it comes to stars like these, is that results aren't overnight. Countless threads have I went on and on about the survival ratio of these species, however truth be told I myself had Fromias for 6 months before the clock stopped ticking. Any future atempts, all dead withen the month.
Why is this? Well, when a starfish is going through starvation, we think just suddenly it's going to croak the same week of addition.. however, the symptoms can be very silent and the whole process span out for a very long period of time.
Even if the star is out of food.. there is always that tinnie tiny trace of food during the starvation period. It's like having your fridge being empy.. then every day you find 5 grapes and live on those.. you're not going to die as fast as you would completely without food of course.
With stars this is the same case, food become scarce and difficult for the animal to find at a certain point, eventually they begin starving, but find those little grapes to keep them going another week, then they find a tiny bit another week, and this can go on for the following months or years until their stomaches begin to reject food, which leads to what this person here is experiencing.. the melting process, aka death.
Basically, your starfish may looks like it's doing fine just because you've had it for a year, however in reality, it's going through a very slow starvation period which you are unable to detect until it finally dies, which can be in the near future or early on.. or even from another cause like water quality swinging or something. This is especially noticable in the replacements, when the replacements starve much faster since the previous specimen/s already took their tool on the food supply.
