Banded brittle starfish help!

Troncat88

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So I don’t know if it’s my hermit crabs doing this but I have 2 or the same banded starfish and one seems to be fine and the other the ends of his spines or tenticals are coming off and now he has a cut in his disc/body I’m not the best with terminology yet but I researched them and feed them regularly after I feed my fish and I’ve never seen my fish go after either of them and like I said one is perfect fine and has no problems and I don’t know if he’s just sick or if it’s my hermit crabs but I looked it up everywhere and it says the ones I have are fine with them and reef safe
I have 2 red leg hermits, 1 blue leg, and one zebra.
my fish I have are 2 clownfish, 1 domino damsal, 1 coral beauty, and 1 ruby red dragonet goby, a candy cane shrimp, 2 Mexican turbo snails, and 3 small snails I’m not sure what kind.
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ZoWhat

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Really really hard to say. Any of your friends has the ability to do time lapse video to possibly witness what's going on?
 
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Timfish

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My experience I'd say one of two things, first is a bacteial issue, second mentioned above is water quality. I've seen this happen after years cohabitating with small and large hermits so unless it's a Dardanus megistos Hermit I'd be comfortable ruleing them out. The reason I think it may sometimes be bacterial is water qulkaity issues can be ruled out and even isolated the star in question continues to decline.
 
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Troncat88

Troncat88

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My experience I'd say one of two things, first is a bacteial issue, second mentioned above is water quality. I've seen this happen after years cohabitating with small and large hermits so unless it's a Dardanus megistos Hermit I'd be comfortable ruleing them out. The reason I think it may sometimes be bacterial is water qulkaity issues can be ruled out and even isolated the star in question continues to decline.
My salt it’s 1.025 exactly, ph is 8.3, nitrites are 0.1, my nitrates are 0 and the temperature goes in between 78 & 83 because I’m in Rhode Island the the weather is very bipolar. I’ve had the tank for about 4 months now and try to keep as good of care as it as I can it’s my first saltwater tank but I research every little think I can and especially all my fish and invertebrates compatibility before I purchased them and I didn’t find anything about not being able to keep what I have together. How do I know if it’s bacteria that’s doing it to him because I looked up what levels they should be in and I have them about perfect.
 

Timfish

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. . . How do I know if it’s bacteria that’s doing it to him because I looked up what levels they should be in and I have them about perfect.

Well, unfortunately we don't have any way to test to see if it actually is a bacterial infection. But it seems reasonable to me to rule out a water quality issue or damage inflicted by a tank mate. That leaves shipping stress, which can promote a bacterial infection or a bacterial/parasite infection of some kind. This is just one of those situations where all you can do is verify it's not caused by anything you have control over and accept you don't have control over everything.
 

JCM

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Well, unfortunately we don't have any way to test to see if it actually is a bacterial infection. But it seems reasonable to me to rule out a water quality issue or damage inflicted by a tank mate. That leaves shipping stress, which can promote a bacterial infection or a bacterial/parasite infection of some kind. This is just one of those situations where all you can do is verify it's not caused by anything you have control over and accept you don't have control over everything.

Very well said. It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. Sometimes things just don't make it, it sucks but it's part of the hobby unfortunately.
 
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Troncat88

Troncat88

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Very well said. It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. Sometimes things just don't make it, it sucks but it's part of the hobby unfortunately.
The tips have been falling off since the night I put him in the tank which was about 14 days ago I noticed the cut in his disc about 2-3 days ago and did a water change and check levels after, but since the cut in its disc nothing else has happened and he still moves around and climbs, do you think it will get better or do you think he’s gonna die?
 

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