what the heck?

[EllisColes]

ok i have a 75 gallon tank with about 90lbs of live rock and all that good stuff but down to the point....a cpl of days ago i bought a small starfish and in the tank is a engineer goby,fusi goby, scooter blenny,6 or so crabs and 7 or so snails and a firefish, 2 maroon clowns and a sand sifter star and 2 damsels,a decorator crab and sumthing ripped a leg off of the little starfish and proceeded to eat it but when i woke up it was laying there with the leg detached and particles of i would say guts hanging out but what did that bc i want it out?

 

[BigScott]

in my experience sand shifter stars do not live long in a small tank an i have a 75g.. cuz they starve to death..an i would dump the damsels..they cuased me a ton of money on tangs they stressed them out until they died.. for what its worth..

scott

 

[sir_dudeguy]

while scott is right about the sand sifters (they got no place in our reef tanks IMO...they'll eat everything in the sand in a couple months and then starve), i dont think that it or the damsels had anything to do with it.

What type of starfish is it? And what type of crabs do you have? I woulndt suspect any fish either...i've never seen fish go after stars like that.

 

[EllisColes]

it was a little red reef star, and im suspecting the crabs also, but the damsel when i get the chance is gone, i hate em!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

again...what type of crabs?

 

[EllisColes]

just hermits to my knowledge there blue leg

 

[sir_dudeguy]

It wasnt them then...hermits couldnt rip a leg off of a starfish. If it were an emerald crab (larger one) then it probably could...but not hermits..

 

[EllisColes]

you think maybe it could have died naturally and then something just picked at it bc it had all of last night to happen bc i found it this morning when i woke up?

 

[EllisColes]

i also forgot to mention that i have a pistol shrimp that i havent seen bc i just added it? could it be that?

 

[sir_dudeguy]

Could have just died and then been eaten up a bit...

Not the pistol either. They dont go after stuff like that.

 

[greenbean36191]

I don't think anything attacked the star. Since it happened so soon after being added I would suspect poor acclimation. What you're seeing is typical of how they die due to osmotic problems.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

oh yea, dont they melt when they die? Forgot about that....

Does it look like its been melting away?

 

[EllisColes]

i would have to say that that sounds the most sorrect! and im guessing after he died fish might have picked at him!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

or the hermits or other snails that you may have coulda picked at him

 

[EllisColes]

well thats our solution! thanks alot guys!