Sick Green Serpent Star

[Mental1]

I adopted this guy a few years ago and he's always been fine. He seems to be having difficulty and is not eating. I don't know what to do about him. He's out in the front of the tank and seems to in pain? He's got two white spots on him that look like some kind of fungus. I've left him where he is as I really just kill stuff in QT!

 

[Nina51]

when you say he's not eating, do you target feed him? if not, try giving him a tiny piece of raw shrimp or raw scallop. if he's *healthy*, he should wrap his arms around it and take it to his mouth.

can you post a pic?

 

[Mental1]

I do target feed him and he's always eaten well. I'll see if I can get a picture but doubtful. I think he's a goner sadly.

 

[Calappidae]

white dots? Are you able to pluck them off as I've heard pyramid snails are parasitic to echoderms specifically.

 

[Mental1]

Take a look and see what you think"¦

 

[Calappidae]

That's not good.. my CC stars always began turning white like that followed by death days later..

Continue feeding and see what happens.

 

[Mental1]

Sorry about the picture quality -- it looks like a fungus of some kind to me versus a snail.

 

[Mental1]

He's not eating. I've targeted him twice today -- the last time with almost half a silverside. The CBB is happy!

 

[ReeferBill]

All of the starfish that I have kept have come down with this killer necrosis and slowly wither away rapidly. Its awful , I just picked up a red knobby small reefsafe star and it has already lost one arm to this disease. I did not see him or her today...Probably already gone...

 

[Mental1]

Does the picture I posted look like the same disease? All of his legs are - his body looks funny though.

 

[Calappidae]

Every single CC starfish I tried to keep alive before the harlequins got them died to the mentioned disease.. Is there a way to stop it? seriously I'll buy ten stars play them in my fuge and most of them will be dead before the first one is eaten..

 

[Mental1]

I can"t find him, suspect the worst given the statements above.

 

[Nina51]

aww, bummer. does this disease only affect starfish?

 

[faithenfire]

seems like sea stars in the wild also have a necrosis issue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_wasting_disease

 

[Mental1]

Update -- so he disappeared in the tank for several weeks and I thought he was dead. Then all of a sudden he shows up and there's a hole in his disk and the fish are eating him alive. From what everyone said he was a goner anyway so I was thinking of just ending his misery. I couldn't do it so I caught him and put him in a tank without fish in it. It's a 75 gallon that's part of my basement sump system and the only other inhabitant is a chocolate star.

I put him in the tank in net and just left him. Well he got out that day and climbed up on the short end of the tank and just hung there. It's in a spot where I can't really see him well so I just thought he was slowly dying. I would poke him every now and then and he would move.

Well, I noticed as I was doing maintenance work that he was at a slightly different angle and that the chocolate chip had decided to keep him company. I could actually look at his disk and it was healing! I couldn't believe my eyes -- the hole was filling in and he looked like he was doing better. I haven't target fed him in a while so I'm going to try later on tonight. Coincidently, I had loaded the tank with pods and noticed them swarming all over him. So no conclusions -- only that he's healing in the absence of fish...

 

[clownfish18]

I dont know much about starfish, but if he was dying you should caught off his arms because they would growback wouldnt they

 

[arnoldrew]

I dont know much about starfish, but if he was dying you should caught off his arms because they would growback wouldnt they

I don't get what you're saying. Because it's dying he should torture it?

 

[Nina51]

I dont know much about starfish, but if he was dying you should caught off his arms because they would growback wouldnt they

what????

 

[Mental1]

Some people keep certain crabs that feed off of starfish -- harlequin to be exact. They also keep starfish and cut off the legs to feed these crabs. When you have a sick animal -- such as this starfish, the last thing you want to do is to injure it more. Yes, they can grow their legs back but this starfish is an adoptee -- as is the chocolate chip -- and I personally couldn't chop off their legs to feed anything. I have kept aggressives and fed them live fish but the fish I kept were gulpers and the death was quick. I also feed my fish live black worms, again -- they are gulped. I guess I just draw the line at chopping off body parts. What can I say -- I shoot for the quick death.

 

[Calappidae]

#harlequin shrimp


On the subject however, He's saying chop the injured limb off and let it grow back as echinoderms can regenerate missing limbs and if the vital organs are present missing bodies. In this specimen's case it'd be a pointless effort, and I wouldn't even atempt doing so on a healthy specimen.