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View Full Version : Bristil worms eating my star fish.


coryjones
03/31/2013, 04:24 PM
I have a blue staurfish and i looks like he tried to eat a bristil work and it eat right through him out the other side. Is there anything i can do for him? He is still alive will he heal up or do i just have to let what happens happen?

Anemone
03/31/2013, 05:08 PM
I doubt your star tried to consume a bristle worm. More than likely, your star is dying and disintegrating on it's own, and the bristle is cleaning up the mess.

Why your star is dying would determine whether there is anything you can do to save it. These stars generally die form one of two causes - 1) the are acclimated poorly and they "fall apart" within about 3-4 weeks of entering a a tank due to osmotic damage, or 2) they starve to death and begin falling apart (this one can take anywhere from 6-18 months to occur, depending upon the size of the tank. If your star is starving, transferring to a different tank may provide the necessary nutrition to keep it alive (but we really don't know what blue linkias eat, so it's a hit-or-miss proposition).

Good luck,
Kevin

Sk8r
03/31/2013, 07:49 PM
Linckias die quite readily and should not be in any tank under 100 gallons and a very mature tank with a lot of rock at that. The bristleworm could save him by eating the dead tissue, if he weren't so sick, but I fear it's a goner unless you take it back to the store and it finds an environment where there's food for him. He can't eat fish food, just certain stuff that grows on rockwork.

coryjones
03/31/2013, 08:03 PM
He was not dieing and was doing great he would eat algae sheets and krill. He seemed very content. I noticed he was in the same spot for about 24 hours in between a couple of rocks i planed to move some stuff around so i moved them and found a worm had went in through his mouth and out the other side. he is still a live but not moving much. i have had blue and orange ones in past tanks and had really good luck never lost one before. I even had one stick his foot in a tunze in my 150 and loose part of his foot and he lived.