Memoirs Of A Chocolate Chip Starfish:

[chrissaysyes]

I will close this post but request that Chris starts a new one on keeping a CCS in a nano. Chris...good luck with it. Try and take as many pix as you can. Keep a close eye on it and if it ever appears ill, be prepared to pull it ASAP since they DO degrade water quality and rapidly. SH

Alrighty, by request, by interest, by hopes that if things go wrong this will create a more public and urgent forum for me to gain help...here it is.

On 12/12/07 I added a Chocolate Chip Star (Protoreaster Nodosus) to my 14g Biocube. There have been a lot of mixed feelings about this, some feel that this is a very risky move as Starfish in general have a poor record in small aquarium, especially those of the "nano" persuasion. Complications arise due to unknown reasons, as well as feeding issues. As SH stated (correct me if I'm wrong...or if it wasn't even you who said this) noone is really 100% on the natural diet of the CCS. Some others have argued that the diet of this animal can easily be supplemented and maintained regardless of the size of the tank. I obviously feel this way, completely ignorantly as I have no experience with them what-so-ever. It just seems logical...if I see them eat, they're eating, and theyre doing well. I will do EVERYTHING in my power to keep this little guy going and I feel that I have enough experience with marine aquaria to keep him alive and to do whatever needs to be done. Did I mention if he dies then he'll kill my favorite fish? Sherman, the deformed Occ. Clown. That's incentive right there. Anyways guys, wish me luck.

He's been in now for a little over a week. He's been being fed finely minced silver side meat, mysid shrimp, and flake whenever he decides to take it from the fish. He's very active, spends a lot of his time perched on the edge of a large conch shell suspension feeding, until food is introduced, then he goes to wherever the food is and keeps moving until he finds some. He'll sit still over the food once he catches it. Maybe I should break this down into a more simple format:

Foods:

Mysis (minced)
Silverside (minced)
Flake (not sure of the brand, remind me and I'll update)

Feeding Methods:

-Sticking flake to the side of the tank near him.
-Using a syringe to squirt food under the tip of his arm, which he lifts up and accepts.
-Have been contemplating feeding by hand, as in setting food into my palm and then placing him in my palm...kinda scared.
-Next feeding I will try putting the shrimp (unchopped) under a very think layer of substrate to establish a feeding zone for him.

Water Parameters:
Pefect, everything at zero. Are there any trace elements I should test for? Not sure if calcium or iodine play any role in their well-being? Wouldnt think so as they seem to lack any skeletal structure aside from his "teeth."

The tank filtration is completely natural. LR rubble in the sump in the back of the tank, nothing else. Caulerpa is the only macroalgae that grows in the display, other than that there is only a large conch shell, no other structures. Some hair algae grows on the back of the shell but that's purposeful. I'll get some pics of him soon, until then feel free to check out the "sea horse" link in my signature as he's living in that tank. Anything else just let me know and I'll post it on the next update.

 

[STD]

Chocolate Chip Starfish are fairly hardy

Their main drawback is that they are not reef safe - they can also get big

Best of luck with it - nice looking animals

 

[chrissaysyes]

Chocolate Chip Starfish are fairly hardy

Their main drawback is that they are not reef safe - they can also get big

Best of luck with it - nice looking animals

'Preciate it

On the size note, I shouldve mentioned that, he WILL be moved to a larger tank, but that wont happen for probably a year.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Pics:

 

[showjyr]

Took me a minute to find this but after seeing your pics I recalled seeing one of these guys with only four arms. Apparently this is caused by some type of dormant gene....I'll post the info if I can find it somewhere. This guy would have made a good tank mate for your deformed clown, 2 freaks of nature in one tank.
Four arm CCS


PS. Can you post a pic of your clown?

 

[chrissaysyes]

Hah, my freak FOWLR

I'll try and get some pics of the clown, he's so mobile it's hard to get a good shot. I say deformed but I dont know what his deal is, I got him for really cheap because he looked so rough. He was missing a dorsal fin, and his colors are all off...we thought he was a maroon clown at first he's so dark. He has a weird ridge above one eye, and his dorsal fin has grown back but stopped growing and seems to be at a stand-still...so it looks like someone cut a little square out. He's really active and really healthy acting, he feeds well, and he does REALLY well with the blue damsel that's in there. He's just a weird fish. You know how a lot of fish will come and nip at a syringe or a baster when you're feeding them or corals? He actually latched on to the end of the syringe, I had to shake him off. He looked like a kid with his head under the slurpee machine outlet

 

[1entra]

You must have some fun with your clown hey chris! Make sure you do get some pics of him up soon!

Also on a side note I was at my LFS the other day and they had a CCS in a tank full of turbo snails. I was "fortunate" enough to be there to witness the CCS knock a snail to it's side and then climb on top and start to eat it. It was an experience and showed to me nature taking course!

I tried to tell the part-time spotty harry potter look-alike behind the tills what had happened and how CCS are known to be predatory and he should move it to a seperate tank as it's obviously not being fed right and may endup wiping the whole snails in the tank out. He didnt even seem bothered and just replied "he'll be auryt mate!"

Some people hey, just aint gota clue and really dont care! Winds me up sometimes as the LFS is the only one in the area and is about 15mile drive for me and non of the tanks look clean or healthy and theres always one fish scratching itself up against the rocks due to ich!

Well anyways good luck with yours and keep us posted as I'm thinking about getting a starfish for my tank but wana see how you get on with yours first

 

[steelhealr]

There are many animals to add to our tanks that will do well and others...not. The issue is always...VOLUME. Tank water volume of our nanos makes us all a different species within marine tank keeping, which leaves little room for error and minimal reef surface area....for animals to graze. One of the benefits of a forum is that we can learn and, for some, even come up with new ideas, methods, etc on how to maintain our nano systems. Agreeing and disagreeing about what to put in a tank, whether it be a mandarin....a flame scallop....a sea hare...or a CCS....is what I enjoy..what WE should ALL enjoy about being here.

I think Chris has taken on a challenge and the method in which he is doing it is good for all of us. Focusing on the care of the CCS and keeping a dedicated thread sets a foundation for nano-ers here. Similarly, I have seen some mandarins kept in nano tanks but they were maintained with extensive feeding systems and attended to daily. For the average nano'er tho', there are animals that shouldn't be placed in the tanks until there is some mileage under the belt.

So Chris....keep up the good work and let's hope this guy is the buster of the rules. Leaving you with a pic of MY star, in my tank, long ago.

SH

 

[Bauchingera]

u know, choc chips get really big! i dont have 1, i dont even have a nano reef....but when i went to venuatu, their a 1,000`s of them in the ocean and they were HUGE probably 8 or 9 inches in length!!! they came in the most amazing colours....i saw really bright red ones, albino ones and even a four legged one....the were pretty cool..yeah i also saw really cool marine fish like lionfish and parot fish witch went crazy when we gave them some bread to eat...anyway, happy starfish keeping!

 

[chrissaysyes]

AH-HAH! I was waiting for that, I knew there was a sob story in your past. I figured you had a bad experience with a sea star in the past, that would explain your passion on caring for them. I could smell it on ya I feel the same way about anemones as I crashed my first marine tank with one, along with ignorance. That was a beautiful star! I take it those are also the sun corals which made you decide you'd never keep them again? I think you mentioned that in one of my posts about my newly received sun corals a while back...I see what you mean now about how much trouble they can be to feed and keep alive. Not to mention how often I have to clean the front of my tank after dipping my hands and whatever else in there to get to them. Even after my little device I put together for feeding them, it's still a messy pain. I too hope my effort and dedication pays off and this star reaps the benefits of such.

I also wanted it to be known that I wouldnt have purchased this animal for my "experiment" if I thought he would have received better care from the LFS or from any local aquarist. I live in a small town and my LFS isnt very well-read. It's run by a man and his wife and they're pretty old but not so much experienced. They tend not to ask why something died but rather to write it off as just being a delicate animal. She sells goniopora as a hardy and easy to care for coral, and regularly exposes puffers to air during capture. I just felt like I could provide a better home for the CCS than the LFS or any of the local reefers. It may be arrogant but I feel pretty bullet-proof with google and TFF behind me

 

[Lynden]

On a side note those four rayed ones are truly remarkable. I've seen stars with as little as a single arm (in the wild, among thousands more stars) but these were damages sustained, not inborn growth patterns.

Nice algae by the way, and that starfish rocks; hope you enjoy yours as much as I did mine, too bad I wasn't notified when the tapwater company switched to chloramines... that taught me to never use tap water again!

 

[chrissaysyes]

Yikes, so many terrible endings to sea stars lives. I use tap water from time to time but not after the new year. Out of town right now, my girlfriend is in charge of taking care of the CCS until I get home tomorrow, hope all is well.

 

[timpetty]

Have a good trip

 

[chrissaysyes]

Thanks, tim

 

[Redstratplayer1]

When he gets big just get him a Harlequin Shrimp for a "friend"