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Ginger

Reefer
8O
Help! I bought a 55 gallon second-hand reef tank from the lfs. It is approximately 2-3 years old, and it came with live rock, about 3" of crushed coral, lots of zoas, mushrooms, aiptasia, mojanos, and one blue damsel. There is at least one small bristle worm, and one mystery critter. The mystery critter is probably a crab of some sort, perhaps 1" to 1 1/2" across. So far, i have only seen a couple of its legs. The legs make it look a bit like a brown spider. It hides in holes in the live rock and reaches with its small pincers to look for food.

Since then i've added a pair of ocellaris clowns, 3 peppermint shrimp, snails, hermit crabs, 2 emerald crabs, 2 sand sifting sea stars and one serpent star.

The sand stars went undercover almost immediately and i rarely see them. After a few days, when i came home from work, i saw one of the sea stars on the glass was missing a small part of one arm. Then last night when i came home from work, the star was missing the entire arm.

What could be doing this? I haven't heard the tell-tale clicking noises that would signal a mantis shrimp. Does anyone have any ideas?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Starfish can loose arms for reasons other than predation.

Is it possible that he encountered a rapid shift in salinity when you bought the tank and set it back up at your place?
 

Ginger

Reefer
Is it possible that he encountered a rapid shift in salinity when you bought the tank and set it back up at your place?

No, not possible. My tank has been set up at my place since August 5. I add top-off water twice daily to avoid big swings in salinity.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Ginger":2v8qfv7g said:
Is it possible that he encountered a rapid shift in salinity when you bought the tank and set it back up at your place?

No, not possible. My tank has been set up at my place since August 5. I add top-off water twice daily to avoid big swings in salinity.

How did you acclimate the stars?
 

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