starfish being eaten

[ihavtats29]

i found a star i have had for a few weeks now thati just noticed one tip of its arm has been eaten. tank consists of 2 clowns , yellow clown golby , green clown golby , cleaner shrimp , pistol shrimp , and red fire fish golby, and a peppermint shrimp. and misc snails. what would have done this damage? it is a elegant seastar i moved it to my 90 gal tank when i saw the damage it recieved in the 20

 

[Koshmar]

I'm just throwing things out but it might be starvation. Check the arm, is it torn/bitten or just missing?

 

[greenbean36191]

It's unlikely to be predation by anything. This is just the way sea stars die.

The usual culprits are starvation or osmotic shock due to poor acclimation somewhere along the chain of custody. Since you've only had it a few weeks, it's more likely the latter and moving it probably didn't help much.

In either case the damage is already done and there's nothing you can do but watch and wait.

 

[ihavtats29]

i moved it with a 3 hr aclimation, i figured if it is starvingthere would be more rock for it to graze on and there is plenty of sponge to munch on in there also. the damaged area looks torn and nothing but skeleton showing just like your finger tip was removed to the bone.