starfish tips curled up

[Jeremy0322]

Dont feel guilty, we all make mistakes from time to time. For a 75 gallon my guess would be about 60 gallons of water, maybe a little more. So you are looking at about 6-12 gallons a week.

and you only have 40lbs of live rock, you may be a little on the "not enough" side but thats just my opinion.

 

[lcstorc]

Really your tests will tell what your water change schedule should be. Personally I recommend 20% every other week for basic maintenance. If your parameters are less than ideal then you may need more.
Don't add anything you don't test for. That is one of the reasons a good salt mix is so important. All of your trace minerals are found in the water replaced during your water changes. I have heard some good reports about Chem-Pure but only in addition to regular maintenance not as a replacement. I would not trust any miracle cure to replace regular maintenance.
As far as the anemones go there could be many answers. Anemones are very delicate animals and there could be a large variety of reasons why you had problems and you could have problems with the new ones as well.
For the starfish, can you post a pic? It is really hard to judge without a pic.

 

[smejkald]

here goes i hope this works.

 

[smejkald]

see the little tip there curled up.

 

[smejkald]

see the little tip there curled up.

 

[mantid]

Back to the main topic, why your starfish's legs curl up. Most, if not all starfish have "smell" sensory at the tip of their legs which they use to find food. If they are curled up, they are just smelling their surroundings. Some starfish are too bulky and rigid to curl up their legs but linkias, brittles and surpants can more easily move their legs out to where they want to smell.

Your starfish is just fine! and a nice looking big guy as well.

Make sure to give it a treat every so often.

 

[smejkald]

thank you so so much mantid. what kind of treat? i tried fish food pellets and i tried shrimp and i put some coral vibrance near it and now the seaweed. is there something else because i sure havent seen it eating?

 

[mantid]

sometimes you have to have to hold it for a while because they can be slow moving and not know what you are poking at it with until it's right on top of it.


mine was shy at first when I attempted to feed it by hand. I would try looking up what your type of starfish's diet is and try more that type of food.

 

[ReefLady]

I agree with Mantid that it could be looking for food, and from the pics, it really doesn't look unhealthy. Just keep an eye on it. Usually if something goes wrong with a starfish, it goes downhill quickly. IME, Linkias are far more difficult than other stars.
They really need consistent salinity levels and temperatures. Also, they need relatively high salinity (not those found in FO tanks) 1.025 is good. Any major fluctuation in salinity can cause them to begin to disintegrate and die. Also, with Linkia's, their diet is not fully understood, so it is usually recommended that they are kept in a large, established tank, with a lot of LR for them to "graze" on. We had a blue Linkia in our 180g for about 5 years. During the last year, it got smaller and smaller, and eventually died.
As far as this Q:

so, if my water chemistry is good, and i add the trace elements additives could there be any other negative effects of not changing the water.

While there are decent additives/supplements out there, none of them replenish everything found in salt water. I would echo the sentiment that if you are not testing for it, don't add it. I would agree with everyone who has maintained that regular water changes are essential. Not the same schedule or volume works for everyone. When we had a 75g, we did weekly 10% water changes. With our 180g (300g+ system), we did 10% monthly. A large system will tend to be a lot more stable. Depends a lot also on bio load, and what type of organisms you are keeping. FO or "softie/LPS" tanks can tolerate higher nutrient levels than sps tanks. I think though, that the bottom line is that you must still do water changes. A system may look good for a long time without a water change, but then that person might post about a sudden "crash" - and may never attribute it to the fact that water changes were not done regularly.
Just my opinion. But after 20 years of reefkeeping, many different tank sizes, fads, filtration systems, additives, methods, etc., the one common thing that kept our tanks healthy was consistent water changes.
Keep us posted on the starfish.

 

[smejkald]

thanks so much Teri. i know that experience speaks volumes. and after 20 yrs im sure you've learned a lot. i guess i will go back to doing water changes. i sort of was interested in finding out if their claims were true, but i guess i wouldnt want all of my stuff to suffer in the mean time. since i am new to this hobbie i am unfamiliar with all of your codes. what is FO or LPS? and what is sps? did you feed your linkia or did it just graze the rocks? what do you think about already made salt water? my lfs sells it by the gallon.it should always basically have the same salt content right? like how much off can it be or does it have to be exact everytime? thanks.

 

[ReefLady]

Sorry, between my job and this hobby, sometimes I think I speak in acronyms, LOL. FO = fish only, LPS = long/large polyp stony (coral) like hammer coral, torch, etc. sps - small polyp stony, aka "hard" corals, like acropora.

My linkia just generally grazed. We fed regularly (homemade food), so it may have got some of that, not sure.

I'm not sure what to think of store bought salt water, I'd want to be sure that the salinity level matches yours, and that they are making it from RO/DI/. I'd run it through full tests before I added it to my tank, and you'll still need to bring it to temp. IMO, much easier to make your own, a 5g bucket with a spare heater and extra power head, add salt, RODI, and next day you have perfect water. Plus, you're going to need the ability to make water if something bad happens (crash, leak, etc.) and the LFS isn't open.

HTH (hope this helps) ;-)