Something attacking our starfish

[mnat]

This is the second time one of our starfish has shown up with damage like this. The tanks has 2 clowns, a flame angel and a hawkfish. The inverts are 2 stars, 2 cleaner shrimp and a strawberry crab. My fiancee thought one day she saw a mantis shrimp in the tank but it was not confirmed nor has it been seen again. Has anyone else seen something like this?

 

[sdrieger]

in the 180 i had set up at the shop a couple of the stars i had ended up like that...or missing arms. all i had in it was coral and a few hermits. i pretty much just blamed the hermit crabs being is those were the only ones i saw with the ability to inflict a wound like that. ???

 

[Hawkeye]

my guess is the hawkfish or simply that the star is disintegrating. did you ever see it eat?

 

[mnat]

The first star was attacked before the hawkfish was added, so it could be him it may not be. We have seen is eat in the past, I was not aware that it could just disintegrate but you learn something new everyday.

 

[Hawkeye]

i'm not a brittle/serpent star expert so it's just pure guess on my part. I've seen the other true starfish disintegrate due to lack of feeding - so I am guessing.

oh and a mantis would not do that to the best of my knowledge. I don't even think harlequins would pick at a serpent star.

 

[mnat]

Thank you for the responses Hawkeye, we will just have to see. We hate losing fish/inverts especially if it could have been avoided.

 

[blange3]

I can't see the pics as work blocks many hosting sites. IME and as Hawkeye refers to, starfish can fall apart due to starvation, non-optimal water conditions (most have higher standards) and improper acclimation.

 

[Hawkeye]

I can't see the pics as work blocks many hosting sites. IME and as Hawkeye refers to, starfish can fall apart due to starvation, non-optimal water conditions (most have higher standards) and improper acclimation.

imagine a chocolate/white striped serpent star with a small hole right in the middle of it's body. Almost looks like somebody took a screwdriver and pushed it right down the middle and dug the meat out.

To me it's hard to know the sequence - was the hole that caused the death - or did it die and then was bitten/eaten by a fish/cleanup crew.

 

[mnat]

In that picture it is still alive. My fiancee has kept stars for about 10 years and very sucessfully, so this is a new development for us. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

[Gecko]

I had the same thing happen to one of my brittle stars where you can see all of its organs and I have no idea why but he was fine in a week. It just grew back and is still chillin in my tank.

 

[RobbiesReef]

if its the hawkfish, thats a GREAT picture! you can see the hawkfish in the background peeking out of the corner of his eye (almost as if he's saying" oh sh*t, i think they caught me") as you hold up the evidence.....lol

 

[mnat]

Well, the starfish is still hanging on, although its wound is getting worse. I've moved it into a tank without any potential predators; hopefully that will help. Thanks for all the advise guys; I've had this star for three years and i'll be really sad if it doesn't make it.