Something Awful happening to Starfish

[snowkitten52]

Last night I thought that my nova star cushion (I'm not quite sure about the name). From the glass side, it looked like he was splitting in half. I couldn't quite tell from the tank side. This morning, he moved to the other side of the tank, still on the glass, and is almost totally "torn" in half. I can see meat. I have no aggressive fish, no one is bothering him. He is still holding unto the side of the tank. Can anyone tell me what is happening? Thanks

 

[jingles]

Sounds like he/she is reproducing asexually. Starfish can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Starfish in the wild eat clams and mollusks and fisherman who were hunting these would cut starfish into pieces and throw them back into the ocean. Not a good idea. Yea but they can bud on their own too. Twos always better than one.

 

[snowkitten52]

Too late. I thought it might be reproducing at first, but where it came apart was just meat. Today he fell to the bottom of the tank, and died. Believe it or not, I just found half of him. Unless I have some monster alien under the rocks, none of my other fish even paid attention to him, so I know they didn't pester the poor fellow.

I put him in a baggie w/water in the tank to see if he would ever move again, and he didn't, just got to be a hard clump.

 

[Lorna]

most starfish have dismal survivial rates in saltwater with the exception of brittle stars and serpent stars. Linkia stars and sand sifting stars usually perish by starving to death slowly.....

 

[quaddity]

Yes there's few starfish you can keep successfully. They are just to fragile. They will literally disintegrate which is what you saw with yours. Mine did the same thing.