Acclimating a delicate feather star??

rusty hannon · Aug 17, 2021

Hello Reefers, in a few short hrs we will receive a feather star to go w our basket star but the 2 Hugh problems r 1 : I found out a few hrs ago this guy is in a salinity of 1. 018 to .019 and our system is a steady 1.023 and #2 : I've never acclimated such a fragile creature much less going so high on salinity and would like the best chances for him/ her. I'm very sorry on the limited time but only found out in the middle of a seahorse tank cleaning about delivery time( approx. 10 hrs from now) and also found out about the salinity issue at the same time, so still has to finish cleaning and w/c then take care of sick grandson , ( just a cold but his first at 4). Anyway is there a kind soul that can give this advice n the time frame( we r holding). Thank you all for any help.

Naso180! · Aug 17, 2021

Well haven't even seen a live feather star in atleast 20 years. Knowing the high mortality rate has me worried for you. ;/ So I would do a drip acclimation from your existing tanks water via airline tube over the course of two hours or more. If I remember correctly ( you may want to Google it) feather stars have issues when exposed directly to air similar to sponges. Not that air gets trapped the same way, it just seems I read that many years ago. I mentioned that so that once you have the bag or container it ships in acclimated, you shouldn't just remove it and put in your DT. I would dump the entire contents (water and star) in the tank. Hopefully you trust the source and have experience with their livestock. Good luck. BTW where did you get it from? Just curious, they were so fascinating to watch when I had a short lived pair 20+ yrs ago. HTH

rusty hannon · Aug 17, 2021

Naso110 said:
Well haven't even seen a live feather star in atleast 20 years. Knowing the high mortality rate has me worried for you. ;/ So I would do a drip acclimation from your existing tanks water via airline tube over the course of two hours or more. If I remember correctly ( you may want to Google it) feather stars have issues when exposed directly to air similar to sponges. Not that air gets trapped the same way, it just seems I read that many years ago. I mentioned that so that once you have the bag or container it ships in acclimated, you shouldn't just remove it and put in your DT. I would dump the entire contents (water and star) in the tank. Hopefully you trust the source and have experience with their livestock. Good luck. BTW where did you get it from? Just curious, they were so fascinating to watch when I had a short lived pair 20+ yrs ago. HTH

Thank you very much for your input and will follow that course of action. We drip acclimate on items that travel more than 20 hrs and have had great success with both direct placement under 20 and drip over 20. Just had no idea of time or drip rate especially on a item that is housed in such low salinity. I really appreciate your help n such a time frame and the info you gave about direct air contact is exactly what I was worried of. Not that directly per say but of any thing like it was my concern. Extremely valuable to me. Thank you. Yes, I purchased a sailfin blenny from Reef Beauties when there were none anywhere and that guy is very happy and healthy n my wife's seahorse tank. So far( the last year) he takes care of all algae issues n her tank. He is a beast. They r also on a continues watch list of mine as they have such a wide and rare variety of critters and they not only impress me weekly w pictures but so far have come thru w flying colors , plus I got busy and didn't check my gmail, so they did tell me and even informed me of the salinity( which was awesome I thought) but asked me to drop the salinity in my system to accommodate his low position but that's not possible, not n their speedy time frame. I ordered him late last week and forgot. Which was really strange as I've been watching these guys come n go from these folks for the last couple years but originally they informed you of such a high mortality rate on these guys and said they probably wouldn't last 2; weeks. That n itself caught my attention, but we have had a basket star in our cade for the last couple weeks and he's doing great as a baby and figured I had to at least try for the experience plus grandkids and others where we live will probably never get another shot at seeing these 2 guys together again.bi haven't yet but will in a few hrs and am very excited( and scared) but that's what we do it for. Thank you again and give reef beauties a look. They have been great as well. Hopefully soon you too will see them on my build thread if you like. Happy reefing

Naso180! · Aug 17, 2021

Just took a look at their site. Looks good, however it says they run copper in their system while doing hyposalinity. You said it's going in with your ponies? If you have a copper test kit, I'd test that water. Copper can be very toxic to seahorses. They are scaleless fish and high levels of copper can really do them alot of damage. I have a tank of 4 H. Erectus currently. I used copper once years ago and lost a pair. Never again. So proceed with caution. If u don't have a copper test, I'd get one ASAP.

rusty hannon · Aug 17, 2021

Thank you very much for that and for your concern. I'm sorry if I said it was going in w the seahorses, as it is the seahorse tank is my wife's set up: I on the other hand have a new Cade 70 gal, we put 23 year old live rock in from Florida, live rock n reef. This is actually a Mandarin dragonet tank w a king and queen. Someday hopefully prince and princesses but that's a while down the road. Great catch on the copper as my excitement over clouded that vital piece . Although no seahorses n this tank there r corals that would b very upset w me. Many thanks again as I'm on the way to LFS for a copper test kit. I've already had a great fair of problems and would b devastated if I killed anymore critters.. Have a great day n happy reefing