Why are the legs of me brittle star falling off?

[Anonymous]

My brittle star fish is losing its legs, I haven't a cle to why, any ideas? And I would also like to know, I haven't a quaritnine tank and I feel bad now , but its no use to cry over spilt milk, I have what I think ich in my main tank, I have invertabrates, how can I get rid of icch all my fish have it, I lost one fish today to it, and I canot find the fish anywhere in the tank; would a uv sterilver do the trick? Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

You must give all relevant info. before helpfull anwers can be posted for you.

Tank setup.

Fish species.

Current water parameters

The more info you provide the more chance you have of receiving specific correct advice.

Cheers

Urchin

 

[Anonymous]

Did you just add the star, or has it been in the tank for a while?

Are you using Coralife salt?

------------------
Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

New starfish have the highest rate of death. Check your pH and alk. Starfish losing legs has nothing to do with Crypt. A UV sterilizer would theoretically help an ich outbreak, but you don't want to leave it on regularly when your tank is healthy because it kills other microfauna/flora in your tank as well. Unfortunately, it would only kill larval form that was free swimming and happened to get caught in current enough to go through sterilizer in the first place. Normal cycle for them is to drop to substrate. Increasted water movement in tank reduces chance of larva from finding host fish and would hopefully cause them to stay in water column longer to go through sterilizer. From my experiences ich is very hard to deal with and may be caused by overcrowding, or stressful conditions. How old is your tank?

 

[Anonymous]

crab eating starfish,,, ich your under feeding. you have tangs dont you

 

[Anonymous]

Mr. Thomas,
I worked at an aquarium retail store once that used an UV sterilizer on one of it's 110-gallon freshwater systems. After a year of observing the fish that went through that system, I can assure the people on this thread that UV sterilizers DO NOT prevent or cure Ich. The ich parasites apparently do tend to drop to the substrate rather than let themselves get pulled through the sterilizer.

 

[Anonymous]

if your starfish is new, then it probably was not acclimitized properly. starfish are VERY sentitive to salinity changes, so it's best to use the drip method (over the course of a couple of hours) to acclimitizing it. just a note: don't buy starfishes when they've just arrived at the lfs, wait 2-3 days at least, to see how it does. the lfs may not have properly acclimitized it either.
as for the ich: best would be to set up a q-tank and treat with either hyposalinity or copper. if this is not possible, try getting a couple of cleaner shrimps and keep your fingers crossed. and DO NOT add any more fish for at least a month after the ich has disappeared. otherwise the new fish will just get ich again and infest the whole tank all over again. and how are your water parameters? bad water conditions can lead to stress and inturn...ich.
and if you do get cleaner shrimps, remember to use the drip acclimitization method for them as well. do not just dump them into the tank.

------------------
have a nice day
max spl

come and visit my page:
Reeftopia

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies; the starfish as been in the tank for almost 2 months now, I have no tangs and I definatly don't under feed if anything I overfeed, I do have 2 cleaner shrimp and they are at work, but not to the point where they take care of the problem;
my paramaters are as follows:
ph:8.2
amonia and nitirte are at 0
phosphate is at 0
sg is at 1:24
nitrate are at 1 maybe 2 ppm
alk is at 11 dkh
cal 460 ppm

inhabitants are:
1 sebea clown
1 bicolar blenny
1 flame angel

about 15 various snails
about 15 blue legged and red scarlet reef
1 emerald crab
2 cleanershrimp
1 coral banded
assorted mishrooms
frogspan
xenia
chubby brain and a green brain
cup
peral coral
sinularia
candycane

thats all she wrote guys the tank is 40 gallon tank with 175 MH

So anyadvice to get rid of this ih and explain why animals are losing there limbs. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

You still didn't mention the salt mix. Also, have you changed salt mix recently?

- Greg Hiller

 

[Anonymous]

I use marine eviorment , and no I have not changed salt. I cannot find the brittle star anywhere, I have been looking or its hiding or its dead under my rocks; I'm getting worried if it really died I would get an amonia spike.Thanks for the reply

 

[Anonymous]

Sometimes they just lose a leg. They regenerate them too, so unless your star has further problems, it might be best just to let it be. As for the ich, this is an indication something is wrong or stressed. Anyway, the best way to deal with it is remove all of the fish to a quarantine aquarium and keep them at a specific gravity of 1.009 for >3+ weeks. Alternatives include the cleaner shrimp and feeding foods soaked with garlic extract (the water-soluble form I am told is more effective than true garlic oil) and possibly the use of a product called Kick Ich (5-nitroimidazole) which may or may not work and may cause an algae bloom.

 

[Anonymous]

I would not change the specific graviity to 1.009! This just puts further stress on your fish since that is not the type of environment that they would normally live in. I would keep it at a temperature corrected value of 1.025~1.026 or a salinity of 35~36.

 

[Anonymous]

just thought that i'd mention a couple more possibilities:
do you pre mix your water? if you don't, maybe when you were doing a water change, some of the salt hasn't dissolved yet and the salinity change caused the star fish to loose its legs.
or inaccurate hydrometer???


------------------
have a nice day
max spl

come and visit my page:
Reeftopia

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kirk33:
I would not change the specific graviity to 1.009! This just puts further stress on your fish since that is not the type of environment that they would normally live in. I would keep it at a temperature corrected value of 1.025~1.026 or a salinity of 35~36.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It turns out that this is actually less stressfull and more effective than just treating ich with copper sulphate alone. The reason the fish can handle it is that they are osmoregulators, and actually have to do less work to keep themselves hydrated at lower salinity. I agree there are other things involved, and the fish are optimized for a fully saline environment. However in an advanced stage of ich, where fish have died or several have developed the disease, it is probably the least invasive treatment. For less invasive treatments that keep the fish in the main system, see the "garlic and ich" thread.

 

[Anonymous]

for your ick the store i work at carries kick-ick, its reef safe and works great

 

[Anonymous]

I do not believe that it is less stessful. I'm the type of person that will need documented proof.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree.