sick fromia?

[Mihai]

I had this starfish (believed to be Fromia sp.) for about two weeks.
It recently started to get some blisters on its arms... it doesn't look good.
Do you know what's wrong with the guy? Anything to fix it?

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[holry7778]

Looks like he needs better shoes if he's getting blisters like that.

Seems oddly semetrical though, hmmm?

Sorry not a clue as to what is wrong?

 

[Mihai]

Looks like he needs better shoes if he's getting blisters like that.

They look like sun-burns to me. I'll try some sun screen with high SPF.

Seems oddly semetrical though, hmmm?

They started asymmetrical. Actually it initially had one dead on the center, then that went away and these appeared...

I'm stumped. But what do I know about stars anyway - Fromia was supposed to be hardy and eat micro-stuff from the LR. Nothing beyond that.

M.

 

[Len]

I wonder if it's something parasitic. You might want to gently feel one of the damaged areas (underwater) and see if there is clearly something hard like a parasitic snail that has burrowed into the dermis. It could also be physical injury. Anyone who's fed Harlequin Shrimps starfish knows what open soars look like, and your picture does resemble physical injury. I anything bothering the star throughout the day?

 

[Mihai]

I wonder if it's something parasitic. You might want to gently feel one of the damaged areas (underwater) and see if there is clearly something hard like a parasitic snail that has burrowed into the dermis. It could also be physical injury. Anyone who's fed Harlequin Shrimps starfish knows what open soars look like, and your picture does resemble physical injury. I anything bothering the star throughout the day?

Nope, nobody even notices the star during the day. Maybe at night although I looked at it and it seems fine. Some of the blisters broke in the mean time and now look good/better. One, however, broke and it looks pretty bad - like somebody took a bite from the leg there - the meat inside shows. I'll take a pic when I get back home. It might be a parasite - the only thing that makes me doubt that is that I have two more Fromias (same color and size) in the tank and they seem to do fine.

Regards,
Mihai

 

[Mihai]

One of the tip of the legs came off after the blister broke (see pic). The rest looks just as good or as bad as before.

M.

 

[Blazin__]

i had one like this... it died soon after


dont know why... but it did.. im taggin along with this one... i wanna find out whut it is.... i thought a fish was eatin it

 

[Mihai]

No fish for me: I have 4 green chromis and 4 A. ocellaris. They don't even get close to it. Did it die shortly after you got it? For me it stated to get the blisters about 2-3 days after I bought it.

M.

 

[_range_]

Amputate!

 

[Mihai]

It already separated completely by this morning. It doesn't look any worse or any better. I hope it will make it - I found an email on WWM, and that one apparently healed its legs.

Regards,
M.

 

[cdeakle]

Amputate!

Real helpful there....opinions are like a.......

I don't know why I just wanted to say I hope he recovers brutha, awesome looking star......

 

[Mihai]

Amputate!

Real helpful there....opinions are like a.......

Well... I read his disclaimer. And took it seriously .

M.

 

[Mihai]

FIY: it didn't make it.
M.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I've had two seastars die on me like that. They had lessions that opened up and eventually their guts fell out. Very grim. I've heard that shifts in temp or salenity can negatively affect stars. I might be wrong, but it seems plausible.

 

[Mihai]

After the fact I found out that the bubbles seen in the figure are due to mishandling somewhere in the chain of custody. They had several of them showing the signs in the tank, I just didn't know what it means... Out of three bought at the time one made it and it seems happy in the tank (as far as I can tell with a sea star).

M.