Starfish?

[abbeyspal]

whenever I look into starfish on the boards I am always seeing the "do not expose them to air" suggestion. I was just wondering how all of the starfish in tidal pool's survive sticking to the rocks when the tide goes out leaving them exposed? Probably a dumb question.

 

[PeeJ]

Good question. No one has an answer??!?! I find it hard to get starfish into the tank without either dumping the LFS water in, or exposing the star to air brieflky

 

[paats]

I`ve had several types of stars,exposed every one of them to air when moving them and never lost a one.

 

[PeeJ]

Ineresting....I wonder what the reasoning is.

 

[abbeyspal]

Please somebody give me the answer.

 

[K9coral]

Wish I knew, sounds like a question for national geographic or animalplanet.com

 

[abbeyspal]

So if nobody knows the answer why is this consistantley given as fact to people. Im not trying to stir the pot but I have seen this cited as the #1 reason for starfish mortality.

 

[paats]

I will add that they were all mature and healthy,keep exposure to air to a minimum...yada yada..

 

[Anonymous]

From what I remember it relates to their ambulacral system they use for movement. Has something to do with the pressure of water in the starfishes body and the outside pressure - they have series of organs that work to help the creature move. I know on many starfish the 'eye' you see is actually an organ called the madreporite sp? that helps regulate osmotic pressure or something similar.

I'm not really up on my echinoderms but I think any animal would benefit froma slow acclimation to your tank conditions. A short exposure to air following a long (4+ hours at least is what I do, usually 8) drip acclimation should be 'ok'.

If you want more information on echinoderm physiology or what have you there are a few good sites avaiolable from google. Also I think Fossa and Nilsen volume 3? covers echinoderms fairly extensively for the layman.

 

[paats]

key rikees...having a hell of a time tring to get this.

 

[paats]

lights just turned on

 

[paats]

We feed them by hand.They`re a hoot...But...they will clean a tank out of small fish or shrimp or such.I have a BCshrimp in the tank that they don`t mess with,and they leave the sally light foot alone.Anything dumber than that is dinner.

 

[K9coral]

That explains what happened to my 2 chromis and mandarin goby!

 

[Anonymous]

I think its becuz if you expose a starfish to the air, air can get trapped in the pores and bacteria can potentially grow, in turn possibly killing it...It thinks rare since im two for two...ive exposed both of my starfish and they are both alive...I hear the same thing goes for gorgonians,urchins and sea pens...

 

[c0yote]

...and sponges

 

[abbeyspal]

I guess the whole point to this was I wouldn,t put water from lfs for anything. But, it would be hard to transfer the creature under water without exposing my tank to their nasty water. In fact I think that I will just be ordering stuff through them and picking it up still in the bags on delivery day. This way they can never even get their grubby hands on it.

 

[Anonymous]

good call cOyote...and youre right also abbeyspal...