feather star problem

[tld]

Excuse my brevity - on mobile device.

Is anyone aware of a condition where feather stars drop their oral disk? I have seen the white center before and been confused, but this is the first time I have caught a glimpse of what might be happening.

This one has been in my tank for over a year and shown significant growth in captivity.

Thoughts/input are appreciated... Thanks in advance.

 

[3Twinklets]

Bump...

 

[blkflm6888]

Congrats on having it this long everything i read its extremely hard to keep. I like them but ima newbie so maybe not a good mix

 

[Bluelobstor]

Long shot but is it possible this is one way they reproduce. Btw nice looking feather

 

[Reefing Madness]

Usually when they toss the tops is under stress. Something picking on it or water params.

 

[3Twinklets]

I just love Feather Stars.
I was also surprised at how long you have had it and I hope it continues to do well .


Sent from my iPhone using REEF2REEF

 

[tld]

I think something is going weird in the tank. Nitrates/nitrates/phosphates undetectable but now both feathers in the tank are falling apart - not just the crowns... I had some bizarre issue in an unconnected tank recently as well where my puffer seemed to have gone blind for a week (stable water, of course) which is supposedly indicative of nitrate poisoning or some bacterial issue. Maybe there is an airborn pathegoen of some sort?

Will keep doing water changes daily and hope for best.

 

[tld]

Wendy - up until this point I've found them very easy to care for and have a couple in my tank at work that have been there for a couple years now... Algae scrubbers + heavily stocked microfauna populations, and focusing on feeding microfauna seems to do the trick.

 

[tld]

Just realized the only difference has been that I started feeding Reef nutrition Phyofeast to the tank; wonder if there is any possibility the food was contaminated.

 

[Slm222]

I use phytofeast in very small doses but have read to where it has been referred to as liquid phosphate. How large of a dose did you start with? I started very small and worked my tank up to a larger dose.

 

[tld]

Using 4 drops 2x a day in lieu of some of the powdered foods.

I try to mostly address the diet of my microfauna and let them feed everything else. Shouldn't be enough to cause additional bioload, so I am suspecting contamination whether it be food or something in the air.

Dreading going home to see more dropped arms.

 

[tld]

I think they both have died. The squat lobster from the picture has left the star for the first time in a year and the star seems to have fallen off the rock it was perched on. The other looks no better and had dropped several arms in the last few days.

I am leaving them for now - the system has a pair of oversized algae scrubbers running on opposing photo cycles and the water still tests good (ammonia, nitrites, phosphates nonexistent) so we will hope for some miraculous recovery.

Meanwhile -

 

[Bluelobstor]

Sorry to hear that. They are spectacular creatures

 

[tld]

Does anything eat discarded limbs from feather stars? None of my CUC ever has (they drop arms when growing for those unfamiliar) although perhaps I removed them too quickly.

Crabs/snails are staying away right now as well...

 

[tld]

OK lied about that - swarmed with benthic copepods.

 

[iretthepirate]

that sucks