I have an issue

[christine]

I have a choc.chip starfish that I recently aquired but ive noticed in between two of his arms he has this grey patch, where his "skin" is missing. Is this a fungus? And how would I help him out? He's so pretty!!!

 

[spanair]

With starfishes I have to ask this, did you aclimatise him right ?. How long for and did you just put water in the bag or dripped it ?

 

[christine]

I have him in my marine biology class and we just let him hang in the water for 10 min then changed out his water gradually...It was about 35 min total...
I have a thought that maybe the yellow damsel we have in our tank went after him, but I don't think so because he's really shy, 1.5in long and runs away from a .5 in gramma.

 

[ostrow]

That is the problem, I suspect. They are pretty sensitive and generally need a drip acclimation over an hour at least.

 

[spanair]

I thought so, you've put him in to early. He/she will probably die with time as it usually happens when they aren't introduced well. I aclimatised mines for just over 2 hours with the dripping method. Both of my sandsifters are fine to this day

 

[christine]

Yeah...thanks for the info. When I get one for myself, Ill acclamatize him longer....
on the other hand another group in the marine bio class had one...and he was into'd the same way....maybe he was just lucky...

 

[-Chewy-]

Most starfishes die by disintergration and i think that is what's happening to your chocolate chip starfish..

 

[Navarre]

Starfish can die through poor aclimatisation even months after being placed into the tank. Some even as far as 10 months after introduction has been recorded.

Sandsifters however seem to be in a class of their own, they are among the toughest starfish i have ever come across and fantastic to watch! NOt great for every tank of course and a definate "Nno no" for DSBs but well worth having otherwise and great bit of the cleanup crew.

CHoclate chip starfish are really among the more delicate starfish when introducing them to a tank. Sorry to say that he is probably going to deteriorate over time, horrid to watch as you fel so helpless seeing them this way