motionless but alive starfish

hello all

i added a red starfish to my tank 3 days ago. a 1 and half inch one. he was very active at the LFS. i drip acclimated it for 1 hour plus and added it. it has not been moving since. but i flip it over every day to check whether its alive. it always manages to right itself again. is he gonna be okay?

 

they usually dont like the light and are active at night.

 

ive got a red volcano star. someones he looks dead, stays in 1 spot for hours on end. then look later and hes at the other side if the tank. hopefully yours becomes more active.

 

mine moves 1 cm at night. or sometimes curls tentacles abit. wonderful , at the LFS he would move from one end to another within 5 minutes. lol . probably due to huge shock from changing water. the water at LFS was sg 1.018, i'm keeping mine at 1.026. stupid LFS keeping invertebrates at salinty that low, i'm surprised it's still alive.

 

I think that is the key to know they are alive. there tips are up. My red ones are pretty active scavengers, but my brown ones never move. I dont know how they survive.

 

what is the key? when it curls up? i was hoping it'll stir up the sand for me, but he just lays on the sand so so peacefully : i'm hoping he's still adjusting and will move around soon, i actually saw a 6 legged mini starfish ( whitish colour ) on my walls just now , pretty cool lol

 

they arent good for keeping the sand stirred up. most use gobies, but gobies are jumpers. I have some bar gobies that stir sand and havent jumped. Also some types of snails work for stirring sand. But yeah, I meant the tips up are a good sign.

 

You could try putting some nice yummy squid or something next to the star and see if it goes for a free meal.

 

Yeah from 1.018 to 1.026 is a pretty big shock I'm sure I would let it get adjusted and not worry about it yet. It's only been 3 days. I don't know if there's much you can do for it anyway. Hope it makes it, that's a pretty big salinity jump for a critter that's pretty sensitive to changes.

Also how long did you acclimate it for? I would have dripped it very slowly over the course of something ridiculous like 12+ hours I think.

 

I bought a nice sized sandshifting star about 5 months ago..
Within minets he went into the sand.. And I have NEVER seen him again..??
Not at night, not at feeding time..?? never..
I hate to think what may have happened to him..

Good Luck, Larry