Ragged star fish

Joined
21 Oct 2008
Posts
5,696
Reaction score
474
Location
East London
Do any of these critters eat starfish?

  • cleaner shrimp
  • yellow tail damsel
  • yellow goby
  • red legged hermit crab
  • blue legged hermit crab
  • frogspawn
My starfish are looking a little ragged all of a sudden, looks like something is taking bites out of them?? They are pretty small so anything is possible.
 
what do u think it could be then? is there something in the water that may be killing them? my parameters dont seem out so dont know what could cause it.
 
Bad water conditions could also be the cause this, just to be sure take a sample to your LFS as well, what make of test kits did you use?. Have you cycled your tank yet or is it still a new tank as I would'nt recommend adding any starfish before it's running for at least six months. Invertebrates can't handle high levels of nitrites or nitrates which in this case could cause the starfish to literally break up into pieces!
 
Bad water conditions could also be the cause this, just to be sure take a sample to your LFS as well, what make of test kits did you use?. Have you cycled your tank yet or is it still a new tank as I would'nt recommend adding any starfish before it's running for at least six months. Invertebrates can't handle high levels of nitrites or nitrates which in this case could cause the starfish to literally break up into pieces!

My tank has been running for 4 months now, the star fish have been in there for 2 weeks, this is the 2nd one i have seen saw one like it yesterday as well. I have about 10 of them in the tank, the rest are all fine. The reason i got them was to be food for harlequin shrimps i was going to get, but am buying a bigger tank so am holding off on their purchase for the time being.

Using red sea and sera, test kits - red sea for nitrates and calcium and sera for phosphates...those are all i have atm.

Nitrates are 20ppm
Phosphates are 0ppm
 
Hmmmm... Must be something nibbling then, don't believe nitrates at that level would be the cause. You must us a torch at night and watch if anything come crawling out of your LR, could possibly be a hitch-hiker crab! Beautiful shrimp those harlequins, do you catch the starfish yourself or do you need to buy them?:thumbup:
 
caught them myself in the rock pools around EL. There are loads of them here...they like roaches of the sea! :)

Ya think i will have to check whats going on at night. Wonder if that goby gets hungry lol, he is the only thing that is new since i have had the star fish.
 
Is it a Watchmen Goby? If it is then it won't be him... have you noticed any crabs in you tank when feeding?
 
ya its a watchman...havent noticed any crabs...just the hermits, but i must say those red leggeds are pretty large, maybe they have a hunger for starfish??
 
I'd have a look at the hermits, they are opportunistic feeders...
 
Thats what i am thinking, specially since algae is getting low in my tank they may be tending towards the more meatier side of their diet.
 
It IS a crab!!!! Where did that blasted thing come from?? What do i do? How do i catch the thing? Could it do harm to my corals? He looks mean!!:p
 
My stars got ripped to pieces(that grew little starfish) by my 2 big cleanershrimps - 5 starfish in total.
 
Kunhardt - nearly ALL the starfish that died in my tanks, was due to either a wrasse or due to a crab.....
Try putting a glass in your tank - with some meaty food in it - lean the tall glass against the rocks where you saw the crab.... really hope you can catch the damn crab.....
 
Did your star fish have a small white area of deteriation that eventually got bigger causing a peice of it's limb to fall off or the whole starfish to get infected? If so than it is a good sign of poor nutrition or water quality. You have no inmates in your tank that will eat them. The only bad hermit crabs are the ones with red hairy legs. If your tank is only 4 months old it is probably too early to have starfish. They eat organisims in your sand bed and once that is gone they starve and limbs slowly shrink away.
 
Did your star fish have a small white area of deteriation that eventually got bigger causing a peice of it's limb to fall off or the whole starfish to get infected? If so than it is a good sign of poor nutrition or water quality. You have no inmates in your tank that will eat them. The only bad hermit crabs are the ones with red hairy legs. If your tank is only 4 months old it is probably too early to have starfish. They eat organisims in your sand bed and once that is gone they starve and limbs slowly shrink away.

Spot on, too many starfish die in unsuitable tanks, due to them being too small or too young, they take a long time to die due to a very slow metabolism, fish or crabs may well be seen nibbling at the flesh but they are scavenging at rather than killing the star.
 
don't mean to hijack the thread, but i have a starfish and didn't know i needed a more mature tank for it, but i've had him a couple of months now and he seems fatter now than when i got him but my algae levels in the tank seem to be droppin too. should i be worried? should i sump him for a bit so he can feed in the dsb if he starts lookin sad?
 
don't mean to hijack the thread, but i have a starfish and didn't know i needed a more mature tank for it, but i've had him a couple of months now and he seems fatter now than when i got him but my algae levels in the tank seem to be droppin too. should i be worried? should i sump him for a bit so he can feed in the dsb if he starts lookin sad?
How old is your system? I would'nt worry until you start to see him deterioating. They are kind of like anemones (they die a slow death) Do you have alot of live rock? They eat micro-organisms and detritus. It will also eat pieces of fish or mussel if there is'nt enough algae. You have a DSB in your sump? Does that act as a refugium? I'm glad I came across this site as I'm learning of different ways and techniques of this hobby.:yeahdude:
 
Back
Top Bottom