starfish emergency

Star fish help, falling apart
So I bought a purple star yesterday, the store said linkia, but from my research true purple linkia's are very rare. It was a somewhat large star, 6-7 inches across. He was healthy looking in the store.

When I got him home I dripped acclimated him for 4-5 hrs, way longer than I was told needed. I put him in the tank without being exposed to air and when only the actinic lights were on. He quickly clung to a large piece of rock and was clearly moving around on it throughout the evening.

When I woke up this morning he is still attached to the same rock but in different places. The star has split into four pieces, by shedding 3 of its five legs. The weird part is all the pieces are still clung to the vertical parts of rock. The largest piece with two legs is still moving around the tank.

The areas where the legs split are obvisously open, but seem to already be somewhat covered with new flesh.

The only thing I could think of that affected it was kalk dripping. I dripped 3/4 of a gallon of saturated kalk over night. 2 tsp per gallon. I know the drip did not get out of hand and dump because it was still at a slow drip 1/sec in the morning.

Is this normal, is my starfish giong to make it, or do i need to take it out.

Tank parameters b4 addition

ammonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
phosphate 0
dkh 8
ca 420
mag 1425
salinity 1.025
ph 8, but stable

all parameters were the same in the morning when i tested.

I'll be really po'd if this thing does not make it, it was not cheap.



I also posted this in the invert thread, but need quick answers

 

The detached legs won't survive, so they'll need to be removed ASAP. The remaining central disk w/ 2 legs might. Just keep a close eye on it.

What else is in the tank with the starfish? Generally they only detach legs when being harassed or attacked.

 

Other tank mates area blue tang, yellow tang, small clown, one damsel, the only coral on the separated rock hes on is a single frag or acropora, and two ricordea at the bottom.

Ive been watching for a little over an hour and the detached limbs have not moved, Ill take those out. The main body and two attached legs are still roaming around, ill leave him for now.

Please keep the answers coming.

 

Any pictures you can post to better help you? Do you see anything coming out of the ends of the legs? or it turning white? Also how long has your tank been estblished for and the size? Linkia stars are notoriously bad shippers and even more tough to acclimated if the parameters are different from the place you bought it.

 

Sorry no pics right now, wife has the camera at work. I wish i could post a few to better explain. On the main body the little orange tentacles area near the open area, and the purple seems to already be closing over the spots where the old legs were. Nothing turning white. The pieces of leg are starting to ooz this brown gunk, but not the main body. Then tank is right around a year old and everything has been really good lately, no unexpected issues, regular maintenance has been done. I tried to acclimate to the best of my knowledge.

The more I read about issues with star's it seems that this sometimes happens. I dont think its budding or splitting. I find it hard to believe it would naturally split into 4 healthy pieces within24 hrs of being introduced to a new system.

 

Yeah it sounds like it was stressed so i would take the legs that fell off out as someone else stated before and leave the main body. Normally they turn white or at the ends of the legs it almost looks kinda like sawdust coming out if its all the way out to starfish heaven.

 

Starfish is out of tank completely in a quarantine bucket of tank water. I literally watched the main body shedone of the last two legs. As it climbed to a new rock it had to bridge a 3 inch gap of sand. It grabbed it with one arm and began to pull itself to the other side. It left one of the legs on the original rock. As It pulled over, it separated itself from the the leg.

I removed the old legs first, all the legs and the main body were still very attached to the rock, but the ooz was coming out more and more.

Im no expert but in my minimal experience. Anything that degenerates that fast is not good.

I put it in a bucket to observe for a while but i have a feeling it will be toilet water in a few hours.

 

Sorry to hear sounds like you are doing the right thing though.

 

yeah it sucks but nothing you can do, hes dead in the bucket

 

Im sorry I lost my purple linkia that I got too... I decided to stay away from linkia's.. they are hard to keep IME