Please help. Sea Star with big hole in the center. Picture?!?!?

[NanoReefer411]

I just noticed this today. My sea star has a huge hole in the center of his body. I have no idea how this happened. These are the fish and other inverts in with him.

Bartletts Anthias
1 Black Clownfish,
1 Hi-Finned banded goby
Pistol Shrimp paired with goby-tiny
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Royal Gramma
1 Tuxedo Urchin

Do you think the cleaner shrimp could have done this? Can you please help? Any ideas? Here are some pictures.

 

[theJ]

Ahh a fromia. How long have you had him? How did you acclimate?

 

[NanoReefer411]

I've had him very long. Almost 6 months. I was just told he is probably starving to death. He gets a mixture of mysis, table shrimp, (kevins recipe) cyclopeeze and nori.

 

[NanoReefer411]

When I acclimated him I did a drip acclimation

 

[wgchristman]

I just bought one of these myself. I did a little research and it said that if they are exposed to air, that they can pick up bacterial infections.

Good luck! Hopefully the little guy pulls through.

 

[plack]

Not sure why.. But this has happened before to this type of starfish( they were not being eaten or punctured). I'd watch it very closely to see if it stops moving ...at wich point the end is very near :-(

Sorry I don't know of anything that will help at this point !!

 

[NanoReefer411]

=( The hole actually seems to be healed up....although my sea star has not moved very much. He's still alive though. I feel so bad for him. WG thank you for the information. I did not know that. He wasn't exposed to air at any time that I know of. It's quite depressing. They should not even sell them. I've heard quite a bit that no one knows what they eat and that they don't survive very long. Someone gave him to me. I hope it gets better. TY Plack as well for replying. On RC a couple of people had it happen to them as well.

 

[wgchristman]

I found a thread on WETWEBMEDIA last night (which I can't seem to find now). It seems that these specific starfish are very hard to keep.

There were a number of people who had the same problem that you do. From what I read, one day they are doing fine and the next thing you know, parts are falling off. "Disintergrate" was a word that was used alot.

Unfortunately, no one seems to know why it happens, it just does. They must just be extremely intolerent of any changes to water quality.

Nice to hear that your guy is healing up.

Wayne

 

[returnofsid]

Also glad to hear it's healing up. Any updates? Fromias are difficult to keep for all the reasons you've mentioned above. I'd like to have one as they're beautiful...just don't wanna risk it.

 

[NanoReefer411]

Hey Sid. No he passed away. =( I really wish they would not sell animals if they know they will not live. It's so sad. I felt awful.

 

[returnofsid]

I'm sorry to hear that. I agree that animals with a very low rate of survival, sush as Fromias, shouldn't even be harvested from the oceans. The only way this will ever happen is if they're never purchased and enough of them die in the LFS tanks. Eventually, the LFSs will stop ordering them. It will take time, but would eventually stop. Again, sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Gordonious]

"I really wish they would not sell animals if they know they will not live. "

Sadist part is you read this same thing over and over again in thousands of threads. Hopefully in all of those threads a couple of people learned there lessons and stop impulse buying. Many LFS have books on there shelves and all it takes is 30 seconds to pick up a pocket guide and find the majority of animals that are offered in the trade.

 

[NanoReefer411]

I agree, but I was given this sea star from someone that had him in a 12 gallon nano. I would not have impulse purchased this little guy. Again, I wish that DFS and LFS would not sell these.

 

[g0rFz]

think on the bright side, he probably got a better life for the time you had him rather than being in someone elses tank, seems like you respect these animals and did what you could

 

[morgan]

i personalyy didnt think they were hard to keep we have lots at our lfs with no problems and have seen them kept in many tanks for long periods of time
nothinking is impossible some people will tell u that keeping gonis is impossible but its not
just think 10 15 years ago people would of told u keeping acros is impossible but now...

 

[lizardarm]

Sadist part is you read this same thing over and over again in thousands of threads

Freudian slip perhaps...

just think 10 15 years ago people would of told u keeping acros is impossible but now...

Too true, good point.

 

[Gordonious]

Morgan, define long periods of time. Many years ago many in the hobby thought if you kept a coral alive for a month then they were keeping them alive for a “long period of time”. Sadly star fish, cowries, and some urchins could take up to a year to die of malnutrition or starvation, and would live a lot longer in the wild. If you're cool with things slowly dieing off because you just want to keep them for their beauty why not just fill you're tank to the rim with fish like some restaurants do and just replace them as they die off. Many people in the hobby are shifting towards responsible reef keeping and part of this is avoiding keeping animals that are destined to die an slow painful early death in our hands.