Marble Sea Star Damaged on Arrival

[JHamilton0170]

Looking for a little help from the experts as we are still newbies. We have a 35g Reef with 15g sump/refugium - born 1 month ago. It has 70# of figi live rock and a 4" sandbed (half livesand, half aragonite). We've been slowly adding some livestock the past week ... CUC, a few coral frags, and a Mandarin. We're testing the water every day and all the parameters look great. No ammonia or nitrite. Nitrates between 5-10ppm doing weekly 10% water changes.

We just received an order from liveaquaria.com this afternoon. The Marble Sea Star (about 3") arrived with the tip of one arm broken. I'd say 3/8" of one arm was just hanging on by a thread. Once we acclimated him and put him in the tank, he immediately moved toward the wall and started climbing the glass. As he did this, the broken piece fell off. The wound looks pretty "meaty". Strings of starfish innards hanging out.

So .... the question. Will this kind of injury heal itself? Is there anything we can do to assist in the healing process? Other than that, he seems happy. He's been moving around the glass eating algae all afternoon.

Thanks,
John and Jennie

[tbone71788]

to soon for the mandarin most of the time they only eat pods

[BigAl07]

Starfish if healthy and in a healthy stable environment are able to regenerate and entire arm.

The problem is you are rushing this WAY to fast.

A) Starfish need a well established tank that's stable.. they are VERY sensitive to water changes...

B) The mandarin needs a mature tank with TONS of active, healthy and prolific pods. That's all they eat and can quickly wipe out a less than mature population of pods and quickly starve to death

C) you want to make ALL additions slowly... add something wait a couple of weeks... add something else.. wait a couple of weeks... to much to fast = CRASH..

go slow and your tank will benefit from it.

[JHamilton0170]

Thanks for the tip. Mandarin is doing fine. He's already trained to eat some frozen foods but he loves the pods. We're adding pods until we can get a good colony going in the refugium with chaeto.

Would like info on the topic of my thread. Anyone?

[burntricer]

#1 i agree with BigAl 100%.

#2 70lb of rock in a 35 gal, and 15 gal sump... so you have what 20 gal of water?

[JHamilton0170]

Ok, I know I'm rushing it, but my defense is that things have been very stable for several weeks. We had a good cycle early on when we added the LR. Since then, everything has stabilized. The mandarin and the sea star are the only major contributors. The coral frags we have are tiny.

In any case, I do appreciate the warnings about moving too fast and I expected to hear them. FWIW, we wont be adding anything else any time soon.

The last thing I want is to cause fatalities. I'm testing the water constantly and will know if there are any issues.

BTW, we're probably closer to 55-60 lbs of LR. The entire system holds 50 gallons.. With the rock and sand I bet there's still 40 gallons of water.

John

[BigAl07]

John I think the best thing you can do now is continue to test and maintain excellent husbandry with the tank. Be cautious for any losses and remove them promptly. Also keep testing and react according to what your test results mandate.

Good luck. I would LOVE to see the Star heal and live a long happy life in your system

[sambrinar]

Originally Posted by JHamilton0170

Ok, I know I'm rushing it, but my defense is that things have been very stable for several weeks. We had a good cycle early on when we added the LR. Since then, everything has stabilized. The mandarin and the sea star are the only major contributors. The coral frags we have are tiny.

In any case, I do appreciate the warnings about moving too fast and I expected to hear them. FWIW, we wont be adding anything else any time soon.

The last thing I want is to cause fatalities. I'm testing the water constantly and will know if there are any issues.

BTW, we're probably closer to 55-60 lbs of LR. The entire system holds 50 gallons.. With the rock and sand I bet there's still 40 gallons of water.

John

OK speaking from experience THIS WEEKEND!! My tank has been up and running for almost a year.. I got a marble starfish last Wed, from liveaquaria... in this very stable tank.. it was uninjured, my tank is at my office... the SF died over the weekend and the tank was on the verge of a crash... I am still trying to pull it out.. this tank is a 75gal

IMHO that star is going to die!! watch it very closely... if it dies pull it out immediately!! they cannot handle chem. swings and in a 35... your gonna have them

I personally believe mine got under the sump return where the fresh water goes into the tank.. and that is what did him in.. not for sure tho

[lcstorc]

I'm not familiar with that star, but I know my serpent star regenerated arms easily. I would worry more about the star in general that the injury. Keep the water parameters as good as possible.
Stars (and inverts in general) are very sensitive to swings in salinity so be sure to keep up on your top-offs so you have as little swing as possible.

[JHamilton0170]

Thanks to all who contributed. The majority were correct .... the sea star didn't make it. I think there were a number of factors involved, but I do take responsibility for moving too fast in introducing such a fragile creature. I won't make that mistake again.

On the bright side, the rest of the tank inhabitants are doing great. Our Mandarin is eating frozen mysis, krill, brine shrimp, etc. We put a big ball of Chaeto in the sump about a week ago and seeded it with a ton of copepods last night. The Mandarin should have plenty of bugs to peck at, now.

John and Jennie

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Congrats on getting your mandarin to eat prepared foods. It's very difficult to do that. Sounds like you got lucky!