Big Starfish Mistake, now what?

[bethroot]

Well, I am kicking myself in the behind. I woke up and my starfish looked like it had been slashed. Emerald crab I thought. The crab is also a prime suspect of the death of my yellow jawfish I had less the 20 hrs and my husband's feather duster. Not sure though and any advice on that will be greatly appreciated. After reading about starfish among all the threads I think it could be an acclimation issue. It seems to fit the descriptions. So what do I do now? Just let it melt away? Should I take it out before it is all over my tank? And what about the emerald crab, should I remove him and take him back to the LFS? Any advice would be great. Thanks!

[papagimp]

If he's actually rotting away, remove him. If he's still crawling around and eating, and seems like he's healing, i'd leave him be. Or stick him in a fuge to keep others from pickin' on him in his weakened state. As for the crab, I've had many emeralds in my tank and have never witnessed hostile activity by them. Others should know more about the species than I.

[bethroot]

First thing this morning he didn't look that bad. It looked like he may have tried to squeeze through a tight spot in the live rock. But then it got worse as if he were turning inside out. But then it started to look better. The "tear" is right down the top of the center. Then it looked like an arm was coming off. Now it seems to be okay. He is moving around but is leaving red stringy trails behind him. He is on live rock and I would hate to move him into a QT if he is moving around.

[ophiuroid]

Do not move it to a QT, because unless you acclimate it for several hours to that system, it will be the end of it. Watch water parameters. How big is this tank? How old? What are your parameters? What kind of star?

The only hope it has, IMO, is to stay in the same tank and have parameters as ideal as possible.

[dc]

And

[welcome]

[ophiuroid]

Indeed! :D

[Dustin P.]

Just my .02 about the emerald crabs...I have seen mine be hostile towards smaller inverts. There was 1 time in particular when I witnessed my 1 emerald crab kill my small cleaner shrimp...it had to be out of aggression bc I had seen the crabs eating earlier that day so it's not like they were starving. poor cleaner shrimp...