Seastar not doing well...

[williams-crist]

A few days ago a bought a red sea star from a LFS. When I got him home I noticed a small white patch on the top of his central area.

He was doing well until this morning I noticed that the area has opened up and has some "guts" hanging out of it.

He is still alive and still roaming around on the rock.

I can't help but think he won't recover from this...

I was careful to acclimate him over two hours.

Would you suspect that this patch is some type of infection or would you suspect he just didn't acclimate well?

I know that seastars have the reputation of not acclimating an dying pretty quickly but because of the spot I'm thinking maybe I should mention this to the LFS and see if they will cut be a deal on a new seastar...

What do you think? Anything I can do to help this seastar?

I'll try to get a picture.

[brianlena2000]

It sounds like he may not have been acclimated properly at the store (your description sounds like osmotic shock) in which case his fate was already determined unfortunately.

[williams-crist]

Okay, so I called the LFS and they have about 5 of the same seastars which are doing fine.

So basically they think it's a problem with my tank and I should add some iodine to the tank.

Well as usual it's buy at your own risk with saltwater so I'm not going to bang my head against the wall about that one.

Is it worth my time to add iodine to the tank? My shrimp don't seem to have any problems with molting so I'm thinking how could this be the problem?

Also, for those of you who buy seastars do you find that you have better luck with seastars bought online? I only ask because I got my choc chip seastar from saltwaterfish.com and he is the most beautiful healthy looking choc chip I've ever seen... I was thinking that it's better for them because they are not acclimated and re acclimated so many times.

What do you think?

[Salt-Mantis]

I have received 3 different sea stars from liveaquaria and all three are thriving. I have always added iodine for my inverts that molt. I would quarantine him, treat him, and see what happens.

[williams-crist]

salt-mantis,

what type of seastars did you buy from live aquaria? How long have you had them? Can you give me an idea of the size of them?

I'm thinking I'll place an order in the next few weeks. Really, I think you get better quality for your money online. But you have to buy several things to justify the cost of shipping...

Anyway, when you say add iodine. How much are you talking? Is there a test kit out there?

When you say treat him, do you mean with iodine?

Thanks for your help!

[Salt-Mantis]

My Brittle Serpents are at about 8" point to point maybe 9, the bastards mostly stay hidden. My Burgundy Sea Star is only about 6" I see much more of him.

I don't know what others do about molting and the use of iodine, but I put in 6-8 drops (tincture of Iodine, cheapo walmart purchase) after every 20% water change. I do know it is poisonous in large ammounts but so far it has worked well for me. I use my quarantine tank for any fish/invert that looks sicky and just pay close attention to it. Treat with whatever methods I find online or in books. Aka less light, chemicals, and monitoring. All other reefers please give input and correct me if I am doing anything wrong. I am pretty new at this too.