Poor little fella

[Bryan68]

My serpent star has been in the tank for 2.5 months. The tank is going on 5 months. Nitrates @ 4ppm. Tanks seems stable. Other inhabitants are, 2 clowns, 1 cardinal, 1 skunk cleaner, 3 hermits, and 4 astrea snails. Does anyone have any idea what may have caused the injury? Does the little fella have a chance to pull thru? Also, i target feed him fresh table shrimp about every 3 days. As always, any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bryan68]

I forgot to mention, he is also acting weird, instead of being tucked up in his hole he is out and about but not moving much.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Strange, none of your inhabitants seem like they would attack it, is there any chance of rogue crab hitch hikers in your tank?

 

[Bryan68]

Absolutly no hitchhiker crabs, I'm 100% sure.

 

[GK3]

Power head?

 

[Bryan68]

I guess that could be a possibility. Will this kill him, or are the chances he will heal?

 

[lolgranny]

Ime he has a small chance to survive.

 

[GK3]

You cut a leg off and I know they can survive, but that’s basically part of his head. My guess is he will get some sort of infection in there and die. I am not a starfish expert, I am just guessing.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Serpent stars are in the next best thing to a plastic jelly fish for survival.

Have you checked your phosphate level? Or any of the other parameters besides nitrate in your tank?

It is remotely possible it will survive but a disk injury is pretty bad.

Our 3 largest serpent stars are out near the edge of the rocks all the time waiting for the next meal. That took about a 1/2 year before they were pretty fearless.

You said you were feeding it shrimp every 3 days. Has it eaten since you saw this?

 

[GK3]

Any updates?