Blue Linka Star Injury

Not sure what happened but something has gotten ahold of my blue linka leg and half of one leg is now white and is just tissue. Not sure if something ate it or if it got it caught in the pump somehow.

But now every fish in the tank is going after that injured leg...I know they can loose a leg and recover but how do you remove it...do you just cut it off? I am afraid if I leave it is going to die

I have moved it into my sump for now until I can figure out what caused it...I would think something ate it...but it is only one leg that is injured. It now definately appears that something is eating it as everything is eating it

Sadly I dont think I can move it to any other of my tanks as I have species tanks and I think everything else will eat it for sure. The only other possiblity is to leave it in sump for a while until it heals..

But how do I amputate a stars leg?:-X

 

happened to one of mine and it was dead within 24hrs, best of luck to you moving it was probably a good bet unless it is trying to reproduce, the way they do that is via just losing a limb but it's usually a clean sever from my understanding when that happens.

 

Most starfish, including linkia's lose legs as they deteriorate. You may have heard in the past that most starfish dont last too long in captive systems. Your starfish is likely undergoing this process and likely won't last much longer. Starfish are somewhat like anemones in certain ways.... They both deteriorate very slowly, and make it difficult to tell whether or not they're actually capable of living in a particular system. It does seem unfortunate, but if you don't have an established tank, with pristine water conditions, than you may as well dispose of it. A QT will not suffice as it most likely does not have the proper film algae that linkias require. A sump will likely not have the necessities either. Nursing a starfish back to health is a very tough job. I wish you all the best, but just don't wait it out too long- if the fish are already picking at it, than they know that it's already as good as fish food.

 

Linkias are well known to not survive in captivity as no one knows what they eat. They should be left in the wild.

 

Agree 100%

 

I actually only had it since this Friday and my water has tested out perfect...ammonia, nitriate, nitrite etc 0

However, something in my tank is def bullying it and it I agree it can not live in my sump forever so I am going to take it back to the fish store today. It was hanging on the side of my sump and had already lost a big part of the fleshy part of the leg..so hopefully it was simply from bullies and not that it was starving. I dont think it was starving from my tank as of yet...but from the store so I am going to take it to another store that has really large tanks and see if they can help nurse him...or see if they even want him!

 

They likely won't take it. Nursing a blue linkia is more work than it's worth. limb regeneration is next to impossible in captive aquariums, however quite common in the wild.

If you are seeing cotton looking tissue coming from the open fleshy part, than it is definitely deteriorating and has no chance of being brought back.

 

This article by Rob Toonen is the best I've seen on the Linckia.
Invertebrate Non-Column - Rob Toonen

 

Sounds like acclimation shock. Mine did this even after being acclimated for 8 hours.
If your water is pristine and the tank is mature it may pull through. Mine lost an arm due to shock and it has actually started to grow it back...

 

i think you should read up a bit more about them. i dont think ive heard of one lasting more than a year(if that) in captvity due to smaller tanks not having the food source available. he is starving to death and will eventually die. i think its because we do not know what Linkia's eat(?). i was given some good advice when i started this hobby, stay away from them and leave em' in the ocean