Orange Linkia

[ShockSniper]

I added an orange linkia about a week ago that I purchased from the guys at Trop it looked great. I acclimated it over about a three hour period and then added it to the tank. Seemed to be doing well for the first few days was moving around the tank slowly. Yesterday is seemed to look a little odd...kind of shriveled up. Today it looks even worse. It movies very slowly and an arm came off. Not sure how it came off. Is there anything that I can do for it?

Thanks

[EMUreef]

Originally Posted by ShockSniper

I added an orange linkia about a week ago that I purchased from the guys at Trop it looked great. I acclimated it over about a three hour period and then added it to the tank. Seemed to be doing well for the first few days was moving around the tank slowly. Yesterday is seemed to look a little odd...kind of shriveled up. Today it looks even worse. It movies very slowly and an arm came off. Not sure how it came off. Is there anything that I can do for it?

Thanks

welp big question is how old is the tank? I've also heard that star fish arn't suppose to be exposed to air, but i dunno how truthful this is.

big this is stars need an established aquarium to survive.

[ShockSniper]

it's an established tank. I bought the tank from some one that had it up for a few years. I transferred all the water and live rock/sand. The tank has been up and running for about 8 months now at my place. Plenty of pods and little critters. I have a mandarin that is fat dumb and happy. I read the same thing about not exposing it to the air. I was very carful to make sure it stayed in the water from Trop to my tank. It was never in the air. Should I take it out of the tank and put it in the sump?

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Linkia's are very sensitive to change (salinity, temp., ect.). Any drastic changes will start them on a downward spiral... that's almost always fatal. I've heard that very long drip acclimations, on the order of 10+ hours, are preferred. The timeframe you've laid out is fairly common for them to show signs of stress.

In addition, no one knows exactly what they eat. It's thought that many starve from the time they're removed from the ocean until they reach our tanks. In such a weakened condition they are even less able to handle the stress of acclimation.

Unfortunately, it is probably not going to recover and should be removed and disposed of.

Sorry for your loss,
Tom

[jimsflies]

One thing about longer drip acclimation periods that always concerns me is being able to maintain the correct temperature.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Originally Posted by jimsflies

One thing about longer drip acclimation periods that always concerns me is being able to maintain the correct temperature.

I hear that. Whenever I do them I float the bag in the sump while it drips. Of course this won't work if you don't have a sump...

[Sidewinder]

Tom - thanks for the idea about floating in the sump to keep the temperature up. What a great idea for a longer drip acclimation!

[ShockSniper]

so it sounds like maybe I just didn't acclimate it long enough?

[ReefTech]

its possible... i had a blue one that i acclimated for six hours and it did great for about three months and then one morning i looked at it and it looked just like you said in your first post and then it was all down hill from there and i watched my parameters like a hawk.... you win some you lose some i guess

[ShockSniper]

that sucks. I was really excited to get it in my tank. Not sure if I want to try it again if it's just going to die again.