blue starfish lost leg

[eyegoggler]

Just received a blue starfish (online order) earlier this week. He had several strange strands (~1/8" diameter brown and clumpy) of something coming out of several legs (waste ??). It quickly crawled under some rocks where it has been for several days. In the last day or so it has apparently aborted half of one of its legs (~2.5") and had some kind of white stringy stuff coming out of others. Questions:
1. is this normal?
2. should i throwh throw the leg away or leave it to see if it grows?

The starfish is moving around like it is fine and all the other items i received with the order (1 sand star, misc snails and hermits) all seem fine. Tank parameters are all normal (although slightly elevated nitrates (12.5) since adding the new items.

Thanks for the input.

 

[reefsnreptiles1]

How long did you take to acclimate him? These guys are REAL sensitive and don't do well unless they are acclimated properly. They need to be drip acclimated over a period of hours as they are very sensitive to pH and salinity fluctuations.

Based on your description it sounds like this is what has happened (white stuff). I have seen many blue linkias go through "meltdown" do to this (at various local fish stores).

Best of luck!

Brian

 

[dizzy]

eyegoggler,
You just posted a pretty good description of how they look when they are dying. I'd be ready to remove it before it dumps unwanted popultion in your tank. I lost a nice orange linkia in the same manner this morning. It's a bummer. The brittle stars are much easier to keep IME.

 

[Anonymous]

Absolutely agreed. Please read up on these guys and you'll learn that the sea stars are a bit touchy, as mentioned above.

Try http://www.reefs.org/library and http://www.wetwebmedia.com

 

[Joe DeSantis]

Ordering blue stars online is risky because they are so fragile to begin with. The description that you gave leads me to believe that he is dying as well. Stick to LFStores for not-so-hardy critters.

 

[eyegoggler]

thanks all for the experienced input. I had been told they were sensitive to water changes so I did try to slowly aclimate him over 2 hours (hadn't heard to drip, so I was adding ~1/2-1 cup of tank water every 15 minutes. But alas, perhaps the 15hours in a fedex box was too much.

So is the general concensus that I should remove him now prior to bigger problems down the road?

thanks for the help.

 

[Joe DeSantis]

It sounds as if he is defenitely gonna die from your description. As long as he is not rotting away in a small tank (around 30g or less) just let him be. It is not hard to catch a starfish so if he seems to get worse and stops moving around just snag him at that point. I hope he feels better.

 

[Anonymous]

Eyeg - I have had this problem with one linkia and a from ia in the past - once the arms drop or you see cottony type growths at edges they went downhill fast. Depressing I know but like previous posters stated they are delicate.

Sadly most of the 'hardy' stars are not reef safe either which leaves you with (non green) brittles and serpents as best choices.