What's happening to my starfish!?!?!

JustTheGirlfriend · May 15, 2020

Just got this starfish 2 afternoons ago... I've seen it eat each night, and I even see it eating now (stomach coming out of the bottom and goes back in after a little bit). But I've been searching and searching and searching since 5:30am (now being 8:15am) when I saw red spikes/tentacle looking things come out the Top of its body! It started with just 2 "tentacles" which turned into one cluster, and now there's 2 clusters!

Could it be ripping itself apart to reproduce?? My water parameters have not changed since I acclimated it for a healthy 1.5 hours. Salinity 1.025 and Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates 0. I've tried spot-feeding it, but I couldn't get the baby spirulina brine shrimp to stay there long enough for the starfish to take hold and eat 'em. It's moved from the bottom right front corner to the back top right corner since I've gotten it. Still moving around looking normal other than those crazy red spike/tentacles popping out its top...

Sorry for not having a proper lens, but you can get the gist with these photos.

F i s h y · May 15, 2020

What species of sea star was this sold as? That may help. Also how did you acclimate it?

JustTheGirlfriend · May 15, 2020

Fishy65 said:
What species of sea star was this sold as? That may help. Also how did you acclimate it?

I believe it's a Fromia Elegans from the coloring and pattern. I've had some replies on my FB post about this, and, unfortunately, appears to be deteriorating. I've read one miracle story of someone successfully bringing their tile star back after losing 2 arms from deterioration from just spot feeding extra each day after about 3 weeks.. But that's one story.

I drip acclimated 1-2 drops per second for 1.5 hours. I've read stories of acclimation being successful after 30min, 1 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours, etc. Or maybe this starfish was already starving when I got it. Or maybe it really can starve in just 2 days? Either way, I'm going to continue trying to spot feed it, but this will definitely be my first and last starfish like many other reefers. Definitely learned my lesson the hard way to trust my research vs. an optimistic seller. So gut-wrenching to watch

F i s h y · May 15, 2020

If you purchased it at a local LFS, its possible it was not properly acclimated there, or even at the distributor. unfortunately its difficult to know. My point being you may have done everything right... Im sorry to hear that it may not end well. Fingers crossed for you.