Chocolate Starfish acting weird

keddre · May 31, 2017

My starfish is acting weird. He is going on week two in my tank but just started this three days ago. My parameters have been stable and I gave him a 3 hour drip on the day I got him.
Before:
Explored whole tank.
Actively ate the shrimp and seaweed I gave him bi-daily

Now:
Doesn't move
Puckers up (pushes body out and leaves arms attached to glass )
Balls up (leaves body attached to glass and rolls arms way back)
Grabs onto food for a couple minutes then let's go

Tahoe61 · May 31, 2017

To rule out issue we really need SG, Temp, Nitrates...

keddre · May 31, 2017

My SG is ~1.023. Temp is a steady 80F. Ammonia is a color lighter than 0. nitrite is 0. Nitrate is between 5 and 10.

There have been no new additions or changes in feeding either

Tahoe61 · May 31, 2017

I would slowly bring the SG up to 1.025 if you're going to keep inverts. Use the chart below to assist you in getting your values close to NSW.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

Are you dosing anything?

While Chocolate Chips are a hardier starfish you still need to start with a healthy specimen which can be a challenge when obtaining starfish.

How old is your tank?

Try clams.

keddre · May 31, 2017

Alright and I'm not dosing anything. The tank is only a month saltwater but was a brackish tank before that. Since it's so young I can't host clams yet and I've been hand feeding the starfish

Tahoe61 · May 31, 2017

You can buy fresh clams at any grocery store and feed them.
I would proceed with a water change and slowly bring up the SG.

Good luck

keddre · May 31, 2017

Oh you meant feed clams, got you. I purchased frozen ones but could never get them to defrost and open so they are sitting in my freezer still

Tahoe61 · May 31, 2017

You can get little neck clams in the sea food section. As long as they are tightly closed and do not smell like decay they are probably still alive (even though they have been shipped for days and are sitting on ice). Add them to the tank after you make sure they are not dead and feed the starfish at your leisure, just keep an eye out for one dying. I did this to keep my octopi happy.