Is my Chocolate Chip Starfish going to Die ? :(

[191185]

I bought a chocolate chip starfish for my 20G fish only live rock tank ..

he's been fine for the first 3 days, climbing walls, moving around very slowly throughout the day ..


Then I did a 2.5 Gallon water change. The water was 1.025 and the tank is 1.025 .. the temp was the same at 76 degrees F .. I also treated the water with drops .. I used tap water .. I was told my my local fish store that this was safe .. . is it ?


My PH is 7.9

Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate all 0 .. just tested with a master test kit ...

Shortly after the water change, he began curling his legs. and isn't moving around in the tank anymore .. Is he going to die from the water change ?

Is he starving to death ? I haven't fed him .. I was told he will eat left over flake food from the fish food, and stuff at the bottom ?


should I buy some frozen shrimp, and put a piece by his leg ? What does everyone think about the water change ?

[Original Fin]

Providing all the parmeters you noted are correct, I would guess the issue is acclimation shock. Starfish are especially sensitive to this. How did you go about acclimating it?

I would keep trying to feed it, what's left on the tank bottom in such a small tank is probably not enough.
Using Tap water and dechlorinator makes the water safe for fish and inverts, BUT, it does nothing to adress the issue of TDS, phosphates, silicates, nitrates, etc that are likely in your source water. Over time, these contaminants will become more concentrated in your tank, and they leave you succeptible to nuisance algae, diatom and/or cyanobacterial blooms. Investing in an RODI water filter (No more than $200 USD) is beneficial for all SW systems, reef or not.

BTW, once you add invertabrates of any kind, you're sort of leaving the realm of FOWLR, and you should consider runnning the system as if it were a reef, whether you intend to keep corals or not. Starfish, shrimp, snails, urchins, etc...have the same water quality needs as corals do. All are sensitive to nitrates, phosphates, salinity, ph etc...
That said, how is it you've managed to keep nitrates at zero running it as a FOWLR system? Typically, I'd expect a FOWLR with conventional filtration to produce nitrates in the 20+ range, even with regular water changes. In reef systems we have countermeasures for deaing with that. How are you doing it? How is your system stocked, and how long has it been running?

[191185]

The tank is a week and a half old. I haven't done anything to keep my nitrites low, they've been that low since I bought my test kit the Same day I got the starfish. I put some thawed shrimp next to him, and in ten minutes he hasn't touched it.

[peacher213]

A week and half, as in freshly setup? or after cycling the tank? In either case, it seems too early to have a star fish in your tank. Sadly many LFS will sell you live stock, whether your tank is ready for it or not. It sounds to me like your tank hasn't cycled and the ammonia levels have yet to rise and spike. I would call the LFS you bought it from, and ask if they will house it until your tank is fully cycled.

[191185]

Thanks for the help everyone. It's very frustrating being told something by your lfs only to find out in hindsight they were likely just trying to make a sale. So his he doomed for sure if he stays in my tank? If that's the case I guess I will return him,

[peacher213]

Glad to help, but it's sad to say that he wont survive in the tanks current condition. Your ammonia levels are about to go sky high..following Nitrites..and finally the nitrates will do the same..when the nitrates zero out..you should be done cycling. However, please refrain from adding too many livestock at once...The tank will need time to catch up with their waste/bio load. Good luck my friend.

[Original Fin]

Yes, he has slim to no chance staying in that tank.

When you go back to the LFS, do yourself a favor and don't come home with anything new until you've had a chance to run it by your friends at Reefland.

Don't fret. This happens all the time with people new to the hobby. We have all been in that position where we assumed the LFS is good source for advice and how to. Sometimes they assume you know what you're doing too and send you away with a bunch of equipment, livestock, chemicals and meds. It's always best to get a 2nd opinion, because you might not get a 2nd chance.

By the way, all the threads marked "sticky" here contain just about everything you need to know about starting off in this hobby.
There are some things you'll hear experienced reefers say over and over again and they are all true...Read, read, read, then Patience, patience, patience. Nothing good happens fast in reefing, and a background in FW isn't always an advantage. Alot of FW standards do not carry over into SW.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[peacher213]

Fin, I converted over from FW...(still have both) and i agree totally.

[chrisfont23]

The tank is a week and a half old. I haven't done anything to keep my nitrites low, they've been that low since I bought my test kit the Same day I got the starfish. I put some thawed shrimp next to him, and in ten minutes he hasn't touched it.

If the tank is a week and a half old, the tank has not even cycled. The best thing you can do now is - well, nothing - not literally, but don't add anything to the tank. When your tank finishes cycling, you can add your clean up crew. I usually tell people to wait a few weeks after it has cycled to add CUC. Even then, you would only want to add one small fish at a time...a time being every week or so. As for the starfish, see if you can take him back to the LFS. He's more than likely going to die. And I am not even sure if he is reef safe.

Little rule of thumb - don't buy anything you cannot care for. And in this case, it's true. A starfish is extremely delicate. I have a Blue Linkia and they are considered hardy. To be on the safe side I drip acclimated him for 4 1/2 hours. They're also probably not going to eat flakes. Starfish are usually sand sifters, feeding off waste/detritus. So I wouldn't expect him to swish over to that shrimp and chow down.

Rather than toss money at animals that are likely to die at this stage, go get yourself a reliable test kit, that does more than Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrate - you will need to measure Phosphates given that you are using tap and Carbonate Hardness and Calcium down the road. Magnesium, PH are also going to be important to include in a good kit. I would also look at a phosban reactor as using tap will likely leave your phosphates higher than would you have with RO/DI.

Good luck and happy reefing...

[chrisfont23]

...a background in FW isn't always an advantage. Alot of FW standards do not carry over into SW.

This couldn't be more true. I have over 400 gallons of fresh running in some staged capacity within the confines of my property and nothing in FW really helped me in SW other than the practices I use for water changes.