What happens if starfish come in contact with air?

[Reefmad97]

Hi everyone, Reefmad 97 here, I was just wondering because while I was buying a Blue Linkia on LiveAquaria it said never to expose any starfish to air but it never said why. Why can't I? I've seen common starfish on the beach without any water on them on a holiday. Please let me know.:strooper: :rollface:

 

[buttons buster]

my chocolate chip starfish have no problem with being exposed to air so i'd be interested in this answer too.

 

[greenbean36191]

The answer is that there is no reason. Linckia and most other sea stars are very difficult and they seem to suddenly die without any apparent reason, sometimes after seemingly doing well for a year or more. As a result myths about what kills them are born from people grasping for straws trying to explain what happened. Exposure to air does not harm sea stars, nor does touching them with your bare hands (though it's a good idea to avoid handling anything in your tank as much as possible).

 

[Reefmad97]

buttons buster, they don't sell chocolate chip sea stars on LiveAquaria, but they do sell a similar species call the African Red Knobbly sea star which is also not reef safe but instead of brown 'chocolate chips', they have red ones instead but it said not to expose those to air too. I'm going to blow myself up if I don't get a proper reason! :blown:

 

[RicksReefs]

since there is no real reason, you'll probably have to ask LA why they say that.

or light that fuse...

 

[revaltion131]

LA needs to get in touch with the experts at Sea World, you know that place where they have all the marine biologists and the open tidepool with the starfish that you can pick up and play with. Lol, sorry. Air is harmless. I'm sure prolonged exposure being suspended about the water could kill them, but it is normally harmless.

 

[philter4]

The reason they say that is because there is the potential for an air pocket to form in one or more of the arms. if this happens it could mean loss of movement or circulation past the point of the bubble. Is this true or could this really happen? I don't think so, and I have never had trouble with stars and I used to collect a lot of them for sale. Greenbean is probably right, some stars are hard to keep and die or do poorly for no visible reason so they grasp at anything to try to justify the death.

 

[Octoberfest]

My blue linkia used to go to the top of the tank and part of his body would constantly be out of the water, doing this on his own. I bought a used 75 gallon setup one time which included a 1 year old blue linkia. When I brought everything home I tried to find a home for it and had no luck, on top of that the local LFS didn't want to take it in. I had no choice but to put it in the tank as I set it up. This thing went through a cycle in my tank...and didn't die. Next it got injured some how and had a huge cut on its arm, more than 50% of the way through. I posted picks on here and everyone told me it was on the way out and it wasn't an injury. Two months later it healed up and you couldn't see any evidence that it ever happened. A year later he was still doing fine and I tore the tank down to sell it. I just talked with the person I sold it to and the linkia is still doing well, so over three years now in at least five different systems.

Now, what I'm about to say has no fact behind it....again this is just my guess...but if I had to guess why my linkia did so well, even going through all of this "never going to work" stuff....the fact that I use fresh ocean water and don't filter it out. Don't ask me why I think this, its just a gut feeling. Now don't flak me for that its just what I think and I'm not ever going to tell someone that this is the reason it works and you should do it.

 

[Reefmad97]

Thanks for the advise, bye for now! (and no, thats not me) :fun4: :bounce2: :mixed:

 

[greenbean36191]

The reason they say that is because there is the potential for an air pocket to form in one or more of the arms. if this happens it could mean loss of movement or circulation past the point of the bubble. Is this true or could this really happen?

No, this doesn't happen.