Starfish spawning or.....

[Harrison Merkin]

Hi Reefers,

Brought a Res Necklace ( ? ) Starfish home and my Gem Tang immediately started hassling it and tossing it around the tank. 5 minutes or so later the starfish starts emitting small red balls from what seems like the cracks in its “scales”. Fish won’t eat them and 30 minutes later my corals are starting to close up.

I know specs are needed for a diagnosis and advice but I’m more interested if anyone has ever seen this before.

appreciate any help.

S.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Like this?

Starfish spawning

A female Starfish spawns bright orange eggs. In the background, many sea-lilies cover the coral reef, as typical in this area in the late hours of the night. This photo is part of an ongoing project documenting reproductive phenomena of corals and other coral-reef associated animals.

photocontest.smithsonianmag.com

 

[Harrison Merkin]

Like this?

Starfish spawning

A female Starfish spawns bright orange eggs. In the background, many sea-lilies cover the coral reef, as typical in this area in the late hours of the night. This photo is part of an ongoing project documenting reproductive phenomena of corals and other coral-reef associated animals.

photocontest.smithsonianmag.com

Hi, Sorry for the delayed response and thank you for yours. Similar display but a different species yes? Either way, we had a starfish release these red balls and I’ve since lost all but 3 pieces of coral. Managed to save a Donut, a Welso and a disk although the disk looks to be fading. Catastrophic loss for us with absolutely no explanation. The LFS guys have never seen anything like it and after several water tests we still don’t have any idea what happened. Like is said tank was thriving with all inhabitants showing absolutely zero signs of stress. I’ve since changed 90% of the water and pulled all mechanicals and checked for cracks, leaks and any structural malfunctions and all are working and in good order. We’ve given the tank 2 weeks to settle and have begun adding coral back in which are all doing well. No loss of fish or any invertebrates which only adds to the mystery.

going to chalk it up to “these things happen” and get back after it.

Thanks again for your feedback.

*here are some before pics with some just before I started pulling corals. There’s about a 30 minutes difference between huzzah and guffaw.

s.