I have noticed twice now, once today and once 2 weeks ago that my chocolate chip starfish gets this weird coat or slime all over his body. It doesn't look like excretory signs but maybe it is. He was in a weird position with 2 arms on the glass and 2 arms on my heater and 1 arm in an almost twisted funny position. THe slime went away and hes been moving around like normal, stopped and stomach is exposed for feeding on some algae. Any ideas?
obviously FO tank
29 gallons
bio wheel filter w/o the bio wheels
10 lbs live rock
3 emmys
6 cniarith snails
1 royal gramma
1 green chromi
1 black clown
temp at 78-80
salinity 1.025
nitrate 20
nirite 0
ammonia 0
pH 8.2
i've had this guy for about 2 months. Also how can you tell if it's malnourished or getting enough food?
The way he is positioned on the glass isn't indicating sickness, I have a cc and he loves bending two arms out of the water. What do you mean by slime, what color is it? Have you checked your water parameters lately because starfish and invertebrates in general are most healthy in very good water conditions. Post your parameters, that would help rule out some stuff
i posted my parameters. i know they bend naturally with their arms sticking out, it was just the way it looked was funny to me. The slime itself is clear and it comes off the back of him instead of his stomach. Its only on occassion and not all the time. How can u tell if a cc is sick?
ok, hard to answer without a picture but you could be talking about a part of the starfish which looks like but isn't slime. On the backs of starfish they have a bunch of clear sensory "hairs" which sense the water around them. Is the slime in individual polyps or is it one mass of slime? If you could post a pic that would help. Also is the star eating normally?
sorry i did not see you posted your params (even though it's a huge list that is hard to miss) they look good, as long as they have stayed steady, cc are generally hardy except when it comes to fluctuating temperature or even worse salt content. Well what are you feeding your star? Are you just letting it find food? I recommend that you hand feed it krill, a cc favorite, if it won't eat krill then you might have a problem.
i had some live brine shrimp on hand for the last week that i've been feeding it. eats normally. Last night I fed him frozen food ( a mix variety) and he ate that. The slime is in one stream. Its hard to get a pic because the slime went away and he rarely does it. he acts healthy and happy.
ok then i think your cc is fine as long as he is eating normally and moving about the tank
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