Sick brittle star

[seagoblin98]

My XL green brittle star has been acting funny all week. Coming out of his cave way more than usual, not as excited by food, etc. yesterday I had noticed the top side of his head was extremely caved in and had a white spot in the center, about a half inch in diameter. Now today I'm pretty concerned because there's a hole where the white spot was... what is going on here? Will he be able to pull through? My protein skimmer was not running for about 5 days due to a bad impeller but is now running. Nitrates went up kinda high because of that. 20 ppm

 

[seagoblin98]

 

[seagoblin98]

He looks like he's trying to push something out of himself

 

[GHsaltie]

That looks like it’s probably his insides. I don’t know that there is much you can do for the poor guy. Sorry
#reefsquad any invert experts that can help?

 

[dbl]

Sorry I can't be any help, but I'm curious what others may have to say.

 

[seagoblin98]

He's not looking any better

 

[seagoblin98]

Could this bristleworm have anything to do with it?

 

[seagoblin98]

 

[Maritimer]

I doubt that the bristle has anything to do with it, not sure about the nitrates. All things considered, 20 really isn't that high of a number ... but we are talking about an echinoderm. The do seem to abhor change.

I've personally never seen one come back from something like that - though I'm sure we've all seen them lose arms and regenerate. There's an awful lot out there that I haven't seen. Doesn't make it impossible, so keep hope . . .

~Bruce

 

[seagoblin98]

I don't understand what is happening. The hole has tripled in size.

 

[seagoblin98]

All his feeler tentacles are still moving. I'm really confused I can see right through his head. The hole is almost an inch in diameter

 

[GHsaltie]

It looks like he’s disintegrating . I’m sorry, I wish there was something we could do but there is such little information on inverts and stuff like this. I don’t think there is any coming back from damage like that, unfortunately. There’s no telling what could have caused the hole to form.

 

[Forestwalker101]

I had a green brittle star with this issue as well and this happened twice. He recovered both times so all hope isnt lost. Try to target feed him with smaller chunks of frozen shrip or silversides. If the chunks are too big it could make ot worse.

 

[Forestwalker101]

 

[Forestwalker101]

The after pics

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Have you added any new starfish to your tank besides the green brittle that is sick? How long have you had the green brittle? Sounds like it is starfish wasting syndrome to me.

 

[seagoblin98]

Have you added any new starfish to your tank besides the green brittle that is sick? How long have you had the green brittle? Sounds like it is starfish wasting syndrome to me.

I did add another brittle, about 1/8 his size about 6 weeks ago. He's doing great. When I got him he was missing half of a leg and he already regenerated it. I've had the green for 7 or 8 months

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

I did add another brittle, about 1/8 his size about 6 weeks ago. He's doing great. When I got him he was missing half of a leg and he already regenerated it. I've had the green for 7 or 8 months

We had something similar happen with our starfish. We had it for over a year when we seen another one that we just had to have. Everything was fine for awhile until we noticed the same thing happening that you are going through. With starfish wasting syndrome you would have to add a starfish that has it. Even though the new starfish looked completely fine. We think he was a carrier maybe. It's the only thing that makes any sense. Our starfish didn't make it. I would check out some articles out there on this.

 

[seagoblin98]

Things are starting to settle down now I believe. I haven't seen anymore of my star, the kracken, waste away in the past day. He did, however, go back into hiding. I'll take that as a good thing

 

[seagoblin98]

The after pics

Did this happen to your star too?