Serpent Star Deformed

[Forscythe]

I have had this star fish for about 2 years now and he normally hides under rocks during the day. I noticed him out during the day and he looks like he's "separating" from his skeleton.
Hes still moving around but I can clearly see his mouth and skeleton from the top side.
I'm thinking he's just old and it's almost his time. But I wasn't sure if this could be anything else I should be aware of.

 

[Forscythe]

Has anyone else seen this before?

 

[Forscythe]

Bump

 

[Forscythe]

Anyone?

 

[Yates273]

There’s no picture

 

[Forscythe]

There’s no picture

Sorry, I posted a video. I see it at the top of the forum. There's nothing there?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The video is there for me.

I can only speculate, and I'm not an expert on starfish, but it looks to me like it might be any or all of the following:
-Your starfish was attacked by something
-Your starfish is starving
-Your starfish is dying (my guess would be from some sort of disease/infection, not from old age)

From what I can see in your video, the missing chunk of flesh seems to me to indicate it was attacked, but, like I said, I'm not an expert and don't know for sure. This might be out of their range of expertise, but maybe one of the #fishmedic would know better?

 

[MERKEY]

I unfortunately think dying as well.

Many starfish do this when starving or sick.

Like said above it could also have been attacked but the wound looks too uniform to me.

Definitely more eyes the better to look at this.

 

[Forscythe]

Poor thing. Everything else seems to be doing fine in the tank.
It's hard to tell in the video, and I can't get a clear picture of it, but I can see it's mouth from underneath where his skin separated. So maybe he is starving because he can't physically eat?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Starfish can perish for a variety of reasons, oftentimes being a lack of food. It isn’t unlikely, however, that it was attacked. That’s how mine died…

 

[Forscythe]

Starfish can perish for a variety of reasons, oftentimes being a lack of food. It isn’t unlikely, however, that it was attacked. That’s how mine died…

My hermit crabs tend to attack snails. And the damsels pick at everything too. Probably one of them

 

[Sharkbait19]

My hermit crabs tend to attack snails. And the damsels pick at everything too. Probably one of them

Quite possibly. The thing is, a creature that spends most its time in a rock while sticking its long appendages out is bound to be picked on by some curious fish…

 

[Forscythe]

Quite possibly. The thing is, a creature that spends most its time in a rock while sticking its long appendages out is bound to be picked on by some curious fish…

Good point