Green Brittle Star- Skin eating disease?

[SaltyNewbie]

I have had a green brittle star in my tank for about 1.5 years now. He is of decent size, but recently developed what appears to be a skin eating disease. The top center portion of his body has been "eaten" away and you can see his insides. It has been like this for about a week now. (I just now got my internet back up and working from the move). I will test water parameters here soon and post those as well. My snails, crabs, bubble tip anemone, clownfish, and blue damsel all appear to be fine. Any idea what is happening or what I should do? He hasn't eaten anything in 1.5 weeks now. Should I pull him out and freeze him or what? Please help.


Tank: 29 gal, approx 35 lbs of rock, fluval 204 filter, prizm skimmer, 2 powerheads, jbj pc lighting, cc base.

 

[Anonymous]

Doesn't sound good - if it falls apart any more I would take it out before it begins to decompose in the tank.

These guys are known troublemakers anyway, you may be better off without it.

 

[SaltyNewbie]

Should I really just pull him out and kill him? He has always been a peaceful tankmate.


Should I place him in a bag and put him in the freezer or what? The only reason I'm going to do it is because that has to be painful.

 

[Ben1]

I would let it go and keep him well fed. Soak a few pieces of krill in some selcon and manually feed it to him.

 

[Anonymous]

I wasn't necessarily suggesting it be euthanized, just that if it is visibly falling apart that usually means they are already in brittlestar heaven.

FWIW I really doubt they have the capacity to feel pain but I guess it is better to give them the benefit of the doubt when deciding how to treat them.

 

[Anonymous]

Should I really just pull him out and kill him? He has always been a peaceful tankmate.


Should I place him in a bag and put him in the freezer or what?The only reason I'm going to do it is because that has to be painful.

And you think that isn't? Man, I wish people wouldn't do that.
:roll:
Not flaming, just asking?

 

[Anonymous]

Knowse, many people think this is a humane way to euthanize. Don't ask me why. I think it's mostly about people just weighing the options and choosing which one sounds the best to them. If one MUST euthanize an animal, the freezing method (falling asleep) sounds the least painful. The options aren't any nicer. Myself, I prefer the net-whacking method. It's instantaneous, but by no means pretty

There is still so much mythology in this hobby. Our job is to try to change that. In spite of all the advances the fishkeeping hobby has made in the last ten years, we are still pretty primitive. The Internet has been both a blessing AND a curse, unfortunately.

 

[SaltyNewbie]

I've read that instaneous (hammer) death is best, but it seemed kind of difficult to do with something as big as your hand. Thats why I mentioned the freezer.

I've never had to euthanize anything, anytime I have something I don't want I take it to the LFS.

 

[Anonymous]

Lepidopterists use what they call a "Killing Jar" to euthanize a specimen for collection. I don't know where they get the cyanide that they use, but that seems to be the best way I've heard of yet.

I just think that freezing to death is not the way to go.

 

[mermaid 11254]

I had a green brittle star to do the very same thing, really weird. I left it alone and it grew back and now you can't even see where he had a hole in him.

 

[SaltyNewbie]

I was actually going to post that very same news in another day or two....


the hole has drastically shrunk and he looks to be getting better! Now if I could just reach my bubble tip so I could feed him! arrrrrggggh :roll: