Sand Stirring Starfish eaten???

[beno]

I bought a sand stirring starfish (what the lfs calls it anyways). Its been in the tank for less than 24 hours and has already lost 3/4 of a limb. I have a small anonome (i think thats right) but I doubt he could have done that. I have about 10 blue legged hermits as well. I took the starfish to the lfs and asked what could have done that to it. They said it was the bistle worms. Has anyone ever heard of that? The starfish is about 2" wide tip to tip and now is curled up into almost a ball. 3 arms are eaten a little and the 4th is about 3/4 of the way knawed thru.

Also, should I dare to keep the starfish in the tank? Or should I just cut my losses and take him out?

 

[ssainani]

How did u aclimate him?

Starfish are VERY sensitive to changes in salinity and temperature....and stress causes limbs to fall off.

 

[Anonymous]

i guessed acclimation too. you need to slow drip a starfish.

 

[Cabreradavid]

What kinds of other inverts and/or fish do you have? I have a friend who has had sand sifting stars, and all was well for a year or so. He recently bought peppermint shrimp (5 or so) for a 125 gallon tank and all of a sudden his star starts losing flesh...I don't know if t's the shrimp or not...but it was definitely not acclimation in this case.

DMC

 

[hfmann]

I had the exact same problem last year when I got my first sand sifting starfish. In 48 hours he was decimated. It was carefully drip acclimated, but I'm sure I had a small population of bristleworms in the sand at the time. I also had two peppermint shrimp. I never saw anything working the starfish over, but it sure was catastrophic.

I'm anxious to see if anyone's got a definitive answer Beno.
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[Anemone]

These stars get the "fall aparts" primarily for two reasons - acclimation (osmotic) damage (usually occurs within two weeks), and starving to death (depends upon the size of the sand bed they're stripping of beneficial organisms, but usally in the 6 months to a year range).

Kevin