Chocolate chip starfish's chips turning white

[NinnJinn]

We have had Patrick for almost 2 months now when we first got him all of his chocolate chips were dark brown. Few minutes ago I noticed that some are white as seen in the picture.

I know that there has been two different times that he would be to the top of the tank glass and them suddenly he just start sliding ( down as if he lost his grip on the glass and when he hit the substrate fall backwards but he always curled up and flipped himself back over.

Is he okay? Is this normal? Anybody know what it would be?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Have you been feeding him? If not, go buy a couple clams and try feeding a good slice of clam. Patrick should take this clam piece within a minute. Most starfish I've seen in home aquariums starve.

 

[NinnJinn]

Have you been feeding him? If not, go buy a couple clams and try feeding a good slice of clam. Patrick should take this clam piece within a minute. Most starfish I've seen in home aquariums starve.

I have been feeding him Reef frenzy every 3 to 4 days but this week it's been about 6 since I have fed him he's crawling up the glass now so soon as he gets to the top I will start feeding him.

 

[NinnJinn]

Just noticed my emerald crab was on top of the starfish picking off of him and eating with this may be caused that?

 

[Tahoe61]

You need to feed pieces of raw seafood like clams, fish and shrimp.

 

[Iona Skye]

Was it determined to be a nutrient problem? or something else?

My ch chip star is also getting white marks on his arms. It looks almost like scrapes. I target feed him all kinds of stuff... krill, mysis, silverside bits, veggie wafers, kelp... The marks haven't grown for weeks so I'm not too worried but I'm still baffled. Otherwise he seems to have great coloration and he's very active (and aggressive as usual.)

 

[redfishbluefish]

Most starfish want meaty foods....and decent size pieces of foid....pieces of clams, fish, table shrimp. As I said earlier, most die in our tanks from starvation. Feed them!

 

[SassiSkrubbi]

I am new to salt water tanks and running my first cycle, I wish someone had informed me that starfish need to be directly GIVEN their food. I ran into the problem of my son's CC losing color and looked online every way I could think of to find the cause of the problem and kept only running into starfish wasting disease. Thank God I figured it out before it was too late. Even in the past I would put the pieces of food where he could grab it and walk away from the tank only to return and find a crab had stolen his food. Starfish are much more involved than just put them in the tank and drop food in.

 

[Stomatopods17]

I am new to salt water tanks and running my first cycle, I wish someone had informed me that starfish need to be directly GIVEN their food. I ran into the problem of my son's CC losing color and looked online every way I could think of to find the cause of the problem and kept only running into starfish wasting disease. Thank God I figured it out before it was too late. Even in the past I would put the pieces of food where he could grab it and walk away from the tank only to return and find a crab had stolen his food. Starfish are much more involved than just put them in the tank and drop food in.

Welcome! This is an old thread though.

Yeah, a lot of animals need specifically handed their food. If I have other inverts I try to make sure everyone gets a piece so they leave each other alone, like if I were to give the starfish a piece of clam, I'd also hand a piece to the crab. Natural instinct is it smells food and goes looking for it, and won't stop until it finds it. Giving it food throws off the scent of the star's food and keeps it busy for the star to actually eat.

This is essential for anemones, corals, etc because more often than not when you do physically target feed them something is going to get a feeding response and go look for the source and bother them for their food, its best to feed everyone at once or isolate them in a cup/jar during their feeding to prevent access.

 

[alton]

I have seen a chocolate starfish clean a ten gallon full of liverock covered in coralline algae in a week. My friend was not happy with his now white rock. Most stores bring them in for feeding harlequin shrimp.