injured starfish

[Scouse]

well this is rather embarrassing.....

since im still setting up my sump i have a eheim 1260 and skimmer in the main tank at the mo....was like this for a month....then my starfish decided to walk across the pump intake (fool here hadnt put the cover on ) in short he blended two of his legs off

i apologise to him regulary

i put one drop of iodine in tank (tank is approx 40 uk gallons) he's starting to slowly regenerate them (improved immediatly)

week later did a water change (40%ish)

he has blisters on one leg/stump (the longest of the two) but has had before an after water changes

any idea what the blisters are? are they part of regeneration or has he dangled his leg out of water an got infection??

any ideas on best way for recovery and how long it will take??

i fed him half a tiger prawn about 4-5 weeks ago but havnt for a while as im scared it'll infect his leg..what do you reckon...hes an omnivore...will he be starvin??

sorry so many questions

cheers

 

[Jean]

Hi scouse,

You'll need to feed him! He needs the nutrients to rebuild those legs! Not sure about the blisters...can you post a pic? We often get stars in from the dredges in terrible condition and they survive.....but it looks awful.

Perhaps another drop of iodine, just in case!

Cheers Jean

 

[Scouse]

cheers Jean!

have added more iodine its deffo helping

tried to get pics last night but camera went mad

will feed him tonight

if he's approx 9cm across and reported to grow to about 30cm how often do you reckon he'll need to be fed?

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Jean]

HI Scouse,

We gice our stars of that size a couple of clams (about 4cm across the shell) twice a week. Since you're feeding shrimps (yes?) I'd give it one every other day until the legs are well on the way to healing (of course remove uneaten gunge quickly) with ours in that state we feed about 9 am and remove uneaten at the end of the day.

Hope this helps

j

 

[Andy Lister]

If he's an omnivore then he'll probably be substituting his diet from any live rock/sand you have.

I've got a starfish with seven legs now after he had an accident with a pump, they sort of got split in two a bit and now has an eye on the end of all seven! He's a cool starfish dude!

 

[Scouse]

cheers for the replies, he's doin well better now since i feed him more regulary, his sumps are grownin quite quickly and he is regenerating flesh on the stumps now.

got some pic's now so will download soon.

The blisters seem to come an go, can grow then decline in quite a fast period. i think its part of the regeneration. not sure but he's an active little fella.

i feed him half a tiger prawn (yeah shrimp Jean) twice a week now, there quite big an take him a few hours to devour.

Andy he sounds well cool post a pic mate!!

 

[Jean]

Glad the stumpy one os doing so well. The "blisters" may be part of the pyloric caecae extending into the new arm........or.........blisters! whatever it seems to be part of the process and the animals survive it!!

Cheers

J

 

[Scouse]

well eventually got some pics 2/3 weeks ago but have been carrying round camera since!!

Since these pics were took his legs have grown loads but more with flesh on than in length so he's doin good, also had a major algae bloom since then (from feeding fish flakes rather than frozen) an now have a clean up crew doin the rounds.

Need to get sump running though and can then, after a while, rearrange rock and cable tie ready for octo......

 

[chrono_war01]

Hurray for the starfish, and hurray for being preapred for the octo.


And do you mind telling me about your sig? I don't get it.

 

[Scouse]

ha haa!! cheers mate only taken me two years!!!

well best do it right than not eh!!

the sig.....ha haa!!! were are you, US? Heard of Malcom Glazer?

 

[chrono_war01]

Who's he? And no I'm not in US, I'm in Hong Kong, China, land of the dratted commies.

 

[Scouse]

bought the tampa bay bucaneers (i think) and then aggressivley bought our (Liverpool Football Club) rivals (manchester United) against the wishes of their fans recently

..a little tongue in cheek

but you've spoilt it now lol, oh dear will have to go an do a new one!!

 

[chrono_war01]

aw..I'm "sorry".

 

[Scouse]

ha haa haa!!! only jokin!!!

 

[chrono_war01]

I knew that.