zombie starfish legs / diatom attack

cirrus

Fish > Homework
Hi again,

So several weeks ago we had our first and thankfully, only casualty in the tank - a serpent star that only lasted about a day after a big salinity spike we had due to a broken hydrometer. It did the typical, really pathetic starfish death sequence where one by one its legs fell off, until it finally stopped moving and we felt so sorry for it that we euthanized it. It was really upsetting, but lesson learned.

Today my housemate pointed out to me that not only is one of the legs still in the tank, but it is alive and wriggling. It was some of the most bizarre sh*t I've ever seen . It was definitely the starfish leg. Any ideas? Can they just regenerate like that?

:zombie:

Also, we've been this red film on the sand for over a month now, and I'm beginning to wonder if something more serious is wrong. It looks nearly identical to all the photos of red diatoms that I've seen in tanks on the forum here, and it does diminish when I reduce the light cycle on tank and feed less. But it occurs to me that if diatoms feed off of silicate, why would they be affected by the lights? Could this be some kind of red algae instead?

Thanks!
 
That red stuff is cyano, and its another one of those algae cycles new tanks go through. Try and suck out as much as you can when you do water changes, and try not introduce as much nutrients into the tank.

Also, starfish can regenerate whole new bodies from one leg. They drop legs like that in the hopes that one piece of it might survive, which it looks like it has done! I bet over the next few months it grows the rest of the body back! Congrats!
 
You are lucky mine had a PH shock and while I tried to remove the damaged legs it finally died. I found it on the sand this morning after days of hanging onto the glass in one spot. It was horrible it watch it wither away I had hoped it would come back but when I went to remove it this morning the whole body was just a mass of snot. Poor guy I feel awful about it.
 
I had a serpent star that did that once. Creepy. Hannah is right about them being able to regenerate, but only if the leg contains part of the oral disc.
 
I don't know if that's reassuring or frightening, jaja...

One more unrelated question - we just got a beautiful frag of a chili coral, and I'm wondering how to judge whether it's happy or not? I did a lot of research on it, and I think I've covered all the bases - light acclimatization for the next week or so, nestled on its side away from direct light, hand feedings 2-3 times daily with frozen fish food (not necessarily ideal, I know, but it has algae in it), and I try to stir up the sand around it a little as well.

It looked a little melted on the first day after we put it in the tank, but since then the polyps have been out nearly all the time. This is a good sign, right?

Thanks again for all the help!
 
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