Starfish dying?!

[Dboyd6]

Help! My starfish looks sick/like he is dying,

He is a chocolate chip and I have had him for 2 months now with no issue

All params are fine, only thing I can think is Nitrates are in the “okay” range, a little high for my liking and I think his!

What should I do?! Please help

 

[sfin52]

How was it acclimated?

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Water parameters?
Are you feeding it?

 

[Dboyd6]

How was it acclimated?

Drip, for about an hour and a half
2 months ago

 

[Dboyd6]

Water parameters?
Are you feeding it?

I was told by the guy at the lfs that he pretty much fends for himself

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

I was told by the guy at the lfs that he pretty much fends for himself

He needs to be feed often.
What are your water parameters? How old is your tank? Looks fairly new.

 

[leahfiish]

Starfish are sensitive to water quality, although chocolate chips are one of the easier ones. Check your temperature, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and salinity and we can give you better advice from there. You can try target feeding him but putting a piece of frozen food or pellets underneath him. Also make sure there's nothing picking on him.

 

[MnFish1]

And sometimes they look like this - and recover without doing anything...

 

[jdemarco]

Most tanks can not properly support stars generally speaking.....most stars will wilt away in time / months in captivity and all the books will tell ya that generally speaking stars (on the whole ) are better left in nature end not in our tanks. That being said those who keep certain stars have very mature tanks with lots and lots of naturally occurring sponges or reefers who specifically cater to the needs of their specific species of star they keep with target feeding etc etc....coolest of creatures but tough to provide for successfully long term in captivity from params to feeding etc...long term success not guaranteed.....not sure of the needs of your specific species personally just speaking of stars in general terms...in the very unfortunate event that your star was to not make it longer term, be aware that I see choc stars very often times used as food for harlequin shrimp on a regular basis in all my LFS. Circle of life I guess.

 

[Luna]

I have a chocolate starfish, got it cause my girl really liked it, but after it ate my anemone he’s on my bad list. Anyways I didn’t acclimate mine, I just threw it in and it’s doing fine, if your really worried try feeding it nori/seaweed. Put the starfish on top of it, I attach mine to a mag float starfish usually finds it and doesn’t move til its all gone. Beware though they do eat some corals ( mine did anyway).

 

[sfin52]

How’s the chocolate chip doing.

 

[redfishbluefish]

It's been said.....he's starving. Most stars are meat eaters.....if he's still able, feed him a piece of table shrimp, fish, clam, etc.

 

[sfin52]

@redfishbluefish agree with you I do. The original post was posted 21 days ago. If they started feeding it, it may be doing better now.