In the realm of stupid questions

Please forgive my ignorance.

I recently(Saturday) purchased a blue linckia starfish for my tank.
When I first introduced it, it climbed on the glass and was clearly
alive. It now is doing nothing. Just kinda laying on the substrate.

I have 2 questions:

1. How does one determine that a starfish is dead? It's not faling
apart. It's still blue. But it does nothing. I've tried feeding it by
placing meaty goodness under it and it seems to do nothing about it. It
does seem less rigid than when I purchased it.

2. When I purchased it, it had what I thought was detritus hanging from
it. Seems that it was starfish parts. I wish I had known more about
them before purchase, but alas I'm a bad person. Is it normal for brown
stringy things(for lack of a better term) to hang from the center of the
starfish? Or did I buy a bum starfish from the get go?

Again, I'm a newbie so be gentle.
TIA,
Pat

Those are very delicate. It's probably toast.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Pat wrote on 5/23/2006 11:35 AM:
Please forgive my ignorance.

I recently(Saturday) purchased a blue linckia starfish for my tank. When
I first introduced it, it climbed on the glass and was clearly alive.
It now is doing nothing. Just kinda laying on the substrate.

I have 2 questions:

1. How does one determine that a starfish is dead? It's not faling
apart. It's still blue. But it does nothing. I've tried feeding it by
placing meaty goodness under it and it seems to do nothing about it. It
does seem less rigid than when I purchased it.

2. When I purchased it, it had what I thought was detritus hanging from
it. Seems that it was starfish parts. I wish I had known more about
them before purchase, but alas I'm a bad person. Is it normal for brown
stringy things(for lack of a better term) to hang from the center of the
starfish? Or did I buy a bum starfish from the get go?

Again, I'm a newbie so be gentle.
TIA,
Pat

Hi Pat,

Let's start with the bottom line - Sea Stars are generally not a good
idea for a home aquarium. There are exceptions and the Blue Linkia may
be one of them but even this guy can be a bit tricky. [Serpent and
Brittle stars are a different case and are often a good addition.]

The problems with keeping stars have to do with diet and water quality.
Dietwise stars tend to come in two types; General predators that will
eat a wide variety of stuff that probably includes things that you
don't want eaten and highly specialized eaters that will only take a
very narrow diet (Murphy's Law dictates that this will be something
that is very hard to provide). Another diet issue is that there just
hasn't been very much research done on tropical stars' diets and we
often don't really know what the animal normally eats in the wild. With
respect to water quality it is important to realize that stars use
water for just about everything and are often extremely sensitive to
changes in salinity or other ionic balance issues. Even with a star
that may be otherwise suited to a home aquarium it's absolutely
necessary to acclimate it very slowly and carefully.

In terms of your Linkia here are a couple of things to think about: In
human terms, stars have a very slow metabolism and can take literally
months to starve. Stars that I've seen that were starving (long story)
seem to deflate but I don't know about Linkia - if its skin is fairly
rigid this 'deflation' may not be evident. Further, a well fed star is
about as inactive an animal as you can imagine - one of our local cold
water stars, Pisaster ochraceus, will eat a small mussel and then not
move for a week or more. I wouldn't take inactivity as necessarily
being a sign of ill health. Likewise, having stuff hanging from the
center of the animal could have a number of benign explanations (could
be feces).

If your star is dead or dying due to shipping stress or transfer shock
(insufficient acclimation time) the first signs could be the appearance
of lesions or indications that something has been munching on it. A
healthy star is usually pretty well defended against parasites or
micro-predators so if something has been attacking it, that's a good
indication that it's not long for this world. It would also be a good
idea to observe what goes on after lights out with a red flashlight or
something similar; a lot of micro-predators only come out at night.
Another thing to watch for is the appearance of "stuff" growing on the
star's skin - that's another indication that its natural defenses have
been compromised. Finally, use your nose; if the star dies your nose
knows - or will pretty quickly!

There are several good articles on sea stars and other echinoderms at
this website:
http://www.ronshimek.com/Online%20Articles%201.htm

With this one being the most 'on-point' for your situation:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rs/index.php

Mortally yours,

Alex

Brittle stars are the best, serpent stars like to eat your
fish.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Tidepool Geek wrote on 5/23/2006 5:13 PM:
Hi Pat,

Let's start with the bottom line - Sea Stars are generally not a good
idea for a home aquarium. There are exceptions and the Blue Linkia may
be one of them but even this guy can be a bit tricky. [Serpent and
Brittle stars are a different case and are often a good addition.]

The problems with keeping stars have to do with diet and water quality.
Dietwise stars tend to come in two types; General predators that will
eat a wide variety of stuff that probably includes things that you
don't want eaten and highly specialized eaters that will only take a
very narrow diet (Murphy's Law dictates that this will be something
that is very hard to provide). Another diet issue is that there just
hasn't been very much research done on tropical stars' diets and we
often don't really know what the animal normally eats in the wild. With
respect to water quality it is important to realize that stars use
water for just about everything and are often extremely sensitive to
changes in salinity or other ionic balance issues. Even with a star
that may be otherwise suited to a home aquarium it's absolutely
necessary to acclimate it very slowly and carefully.

In terms of your Linkia here are a couple of things to think about: In
human terms, stars have a very slow metabolism and can take literally
months to starve. Stars that I've seen that were starving (long story)
seem to deflate but I don't know about Linkia - if its skin is fairly
rigid this 'deflation' may not be evident. Further, a well fed star is
about as inactive an animal as you can imagine - one of our local cold
water stars, Pisaster ochraceus, will eat a small mussel and then not
move for a week or more. I wouldn't take inactivity as necessarily
being a sign of ill health. Likewise, having stuff hanging from the
center of the animal could have a number of benign explanations (could
be feces).

If your star is dead or dying due to shipping stress or transfer shock
(insufficient acclimation time) the first signs could be the appearance
of lesions or indications that something has been munching on it. A
healthy star is usually pretty well defended against parasites or
micro-predators so if something has been attacking it, that's a good
indication that it's not long for this world. It would also be a good
idea to observe what goes on after lights out with a red flashlight or
something similar; a lot of micro-predators only come out at night.
Another thing to watch for is the appearance of "stuff" growing on the
star's skin - that's another indication that its natural defenses have
been compromised. Finally, use your nose; if the star dies your nose
knows - or will pretty quickly!

There are several good articles on sea stars and other echinoderms at
this website:
http://www.ronshimek.com/Online%20Articles%201.htm

With this one being the most 'on-point' for your situation:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rs/index.php

Mortally yours,

Alex

Pat wrote:
Please forgive my ignorance.

I recently(Saturday) purchased a blue linckia starfish for my tank.
When I first introduced it, it climbed on the glass and was clearly
alive. It now is doing nothing. Just kinda laying on the substrate.

I have 2 questions:

1. How does one determine that a starfish is dead? It's not faling
apart. It's still blue. But it does nothing. I've tried feeding it by
placing meaty goodness under it and it seems to do nothing about it. It
does seem less rigid than when I purchased it.

2. When I purchased it, it had what I thought was detritus hanging from
it. Seems that it was starfish parts. I wish I had known more about
them before purchase, but alas I'm a bad person. Is it normal for brown
stringy things(for lack of a better term) to hang from the center of the
starfish? Or did I buy a bum starfish from the get go?

Again, I'm a newbie so be gentle.
TIA,
Pat

Hi Pat;

I'm fairly experienced and most of my fish and corals live for years but
I too have had no luck with the blue linkia.
I can tell you a few things though;
1) Water conditions must be excellent and must not change quickly. (i.e.
no nitrites, very low nitrates, stable temperature, salinity and PH, etc.)
2) When you first get it you need to spend a couple of hours making the
transfer by doing a slow drip so it can accomodate the changes from aquarium
water to yours..
3) I got that stringy stuff too right before the linkia died on me.

Blue things seem to be tough. I got a blue hippo tang through the
inevitable ick stage when I first got him but have had him for three years,
he's about 7" long and never has had ick again. On the otherhand I've been
unable to keep a powder blue or a blue linkia so far (have had a powder blue 7
weeks and so far so good.)

Take care;

Bob


P.S. Mine was kind of like yours, relatively active at first, then slows
down and finally begins to fall apart. I've tried twice.

Also linkas are more sensitive to warmer waters. I don't
know what the critical temperature is, but it's lower than
most other reef inhabitants.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



wrote on 5/23/2006 6:36 PM:
Pat wrote:
Please forgive my ignorance.

I recently(Saturday) purchased a blue linckia starfish for my tank.
When I first introduced it, it climbed on the glass and was clearly
alive. It now is doing nothing. Just kinda laying on the substrate.

I have 2 questions:

1. How does one determine that a starfish is dead? It's not faling
apart. It's still blue. But it does nothing. I've tried feeding it by
placing meaty goodness under it and it seems to do nothing about it. It
does seem less rigid than when I purchased it.

2. When I purchased it, it had what I thought was detritus hanging from
it. Seems that it was starfish parts. I wish I had known more about
them before purchase, but alas I'm a bad person. Is it normal for brown
stringy things(for lack of a better term) to hang from the center of the
starfish? Or did I buy a bum starfish from the get go?

Again, I'm a newbie so be gentle.
TIA,
Pat

Hi Pat;

I'm fairly experienced and most of my fish and corals live for years but
I too have had no luck with the blue linkia.
I can tell you a few things though;
1) Water conditions must be excellent and must not change quickly. (i.e.
no nitrites, very low nitrates, stable temperature, salinity and PH, etc.)
2) When you first get it you need to spend a couple of hours making the
transfer by doing a slow drip so it can accomodate the changes from aquarium
water to yours..
3) I got that stringy stuff too right before the linkia died on me.

Blue things seem to be tough. I got a blue hippo tang through the
inevitable ick stage when I first got him but have had him for three years,
he's about 7" long and never has had ick again. On the otherhand I've been
unable to keep a powder blue or a blue linkia so far (have had a powder blue 7
weeks and so far so good.)

Take care;

Bob


P.S. Mine was kind of like yours, relatively active at first, then slows
down and finally begins to fall apart. I've tried twice.