orange starfish questions

spscrazy · Oct 23, 2011

yesterday night I went into petco to get some dechlor I always check out the fish look but don't buy well they had this poor orange starfish that was in with some chocolate chip stars & about 20 clowns anyway the poor thing had lost a leg & was a really dark orange brown color & even tho I knew it was prob. gonna die got it for 7 bucks drip acclimated it for 2 hours & put it in the tank 2 of its legs just flopped around & it couldn't stick to the glass very well so I put it on a big rock this morning 2 of the legs that wouldn't work came off & are moving around the rock (kinda creepy!) I assume they can't live without a mouth but am asking to be sure before I take them out what do you think the chances are that the starfish will recover my tank has 0 ammo 0 nitrates 0 nitrites it a 95 g reef tank with maybe 100 lbs live rock

LittleDabOSalt · Oct 23, 2011

Sounds like an Orange Linckia. Not sure about your area but around here the Petcos tend to keep copper running through their tanks. Linckias do not tolerate copper at all which could be part of it's issue. The legs, if I remember correctly on this particular type of starfish can and often do regenerate. Possibly started to drop arms in order to try and keep itself alive. ( Dropping legs can mean the star is dieing and trying to save itself )

I'm no expert by any means and I'm sure someone with more experience will follow this up soon. The only other thing I can tell you is that this type of startfish does not do well at all with sudden changes in oxygen, salinity or PH so I'm glad you acclimated slowly. Hopefully it wasn't prone to air during any other that time. Good luck and I hope it makes it Oh and from what I understand the dropped legs can generate a new star if there is ample food supply.

Some info: Aquarium Invertebrates: Sea Stars -- Linckia spp. — Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine

spscrazy · Oct 23, 2011

I think it might be the orange linckia but it's color is so off could have been red don't think there was any copper since there were snails & starfish in the tanks but you never know if there was can it leach out of the starfish into my tank & if it was in water with copper would it be able to recover from that? how do legs get food if there is no mouth?

LittleDabOSalt · Oct 23, 2011

spscrazy said:
I think it might be the orange linckia but it's color is so off could have been red don't think there was any copper since there were snails & starfish in the tanks but you never know if there was can it leach out of the starfish into my tank & if it was in water with copper would it be able to recover from that? how do legs get food if there is no mouth?

If I remember correctly the starfish body consists of a central disk, and five or more radiating arms, the disk works as the "control center" however even if the disk is injured or arms are bitten or broken off it can regenerate. The Linckia are most notable because even a castoff arm with no portion of the "control center" is still able to grow into a complete starfish. Others require at least part of the original center to be attached so yes, the arm can grow and "eat" because a new center will develop. The orange and red linckia are very similar in nature. As for the copper leaching, I'm afraid I can't answer that part as I'm not sure but would imagine it would be pretty minimal if it did considering your size of tank.