Starfish acclimation ?'s

[kaotica]

Hi all.
I got a bunch of stars for my tanks and wanted to know about the acclimation times. Beleive it or not when I asked the LFS guy how long I had to acclimate them for, he said I don't have to, and that it was a waste of time. I don't know how some people get off by saying stuff like that! This guy works at a salt fish store!!What an idiot!

So let me ask you what the acclimation times for the following stars are:

Red and Grey African Star (looks similar to choco-chip star- it is for my FO tank)

Blue Linckia Star

Serpent Star

Tiger Banded Serpent Star

tks

 

[Len]

I don't know. I acclimate all echinoderms the same way I acclimate all my fish (althougth somewhat irresponsible, I usually just dump corals in my tank). I siphon water from the tank to the bag via a 1/16" tubing for 1/2 an hour. That has always done the trick for me.

 

[kaotica]

i am a wee bit more anal about it... i currently have them all together in a garbage can with enough of the orginal water to cover them all and am dripping tank water into it at a rate of 1 drop per 4 or 5 seconds. Am I exaggerating?

 

[Len]

kaotica,

at the rate your dripping, it would take 3 hours to exchange 1 gallon of water. If the combined volume of shipping water is a gallon, in 3 hours time, you will have only diluted the water by 50% (salinity may still be an issue, depending on the magnitude of the original gradient). Plus, at this slow a rate, the atmosphere pays a big role on chemical and physical parameters; the composition and parameters of the shipping water may be quite different then the tank's water, even after a gallon of exchange - notably temperature and pH. I think there is a point at which acclimation can be too careful/slow. Lesson is: gradual acclimation is preferred up to a certain threshold, where it can have diminishing value.

[ August 30, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard ]

 

[Yellowboy]

Starfish need a slow acclimation. They are very sensitive to osmotic damage caused by rapid change in salinity. Measure the salinity in the bag the star is in or ask the store. If it is a very little difference then drip for half an hour if it is a big difference drip longer and add an airstone I drip 1 drop a second or faster and go about 2 hours or until it has quadrupled

 

[naesco]

Yellowboy is 100% correct. Proceed slowly.

 

[Len]

To quadruple an one gallon volume of water at a rate of 1 drop per second would take about 4 hours! 1/2 hour worth of dripping (1 drop/sec) would result in only 33% dilution of water (not enough). It's still my advice to syphon water through 1/16" line at an constant pace for 30-45 minute period. This acclimation has worked well for me when utilized for echinoderms, gastropods, crustaceans, and fish.

An airstone placed in a shipping water is ill-advised. Of the many things to be concerned about: Shipping water pH is depressed, and an airstone will raise pH startlingly fast.

Proceed slowly. Just realize that at some point, too slow a procedure will actually impede acclimation. Don't follow the over-simplified notion that slower is always better.

[ August 30, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard ]

 

[kaotica]

yes i had read a thread about it a while back saying that linckias were VERY sensitive to these changes
which is why i asked again

 

[jmeader]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leonard:
<STRONG>

An airstone placed in a shipping water is ill-advised. Of the many things to be concerned about: Shipping water pH is depressed, and an airstone will raise pH startlingly fast.

[ August 30, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard ]</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
That is true. co2 usually has the ph depressed to about 7.7 or lower. With an airstone it can jump up to 8.2 in 15 minutes or less.