For the first time in years I saw a 6 inch purple starfish the other week on the beach... I almost couldn't believe it. Some of my most formative memories as a kid were seeing all of the starfish and collecting them at the docks... they were plenty... now there's nothing.
Me to. On Gabriola island there were millions, which disappeared 10 years to a few odd ones. I,m starting to see bunches of them again. I hope it’s a come back.
We've always had an aquarium, but i think we got it up and running again when i was like 15. I'm 27 now... All that to say, Every starfish I've seen in captivity has succumbed to chronic wasting. Usually it takes about 6 months to a year to really see it, but like death itself it seemed inevitable. We tried nursing tanks, tank clean outs, Iodine, starfish vitamin formulas, probiotic enzymes for marine fish... I mean out tank is like 85 gallons and we've got 400 gallon per hour pump with a UV light and a canister filter. I have a wave maker on one end and the inlet for the filtered water coming in from the opposite end, I have two air pumps. One is used for an air lift filtration pump and the other is on the inlet hose oxygenation the water just before it re enters the tank. I have lake 12 fish non bigger than 4" and despite the rest of the tank being more than satisfied (I've had a pair of clown fish for 10 years and they've even spawned onto a rock with some string algae once) The star fish always, always, always dissolve away in about a year. I know I'm rambling now, but if anyone knows any good tips for actually preparing this bath... Amounts of iodine and the exact vitamins? that'd be great.
Quite the opposite. Sea stars are predators and eat sea urchins that consume kelp. Without that, the kelp will be destroyed by the fast eating and reproducing urchins. Right now, the imbalance created by this sea star plague is endangering the entire coastal ecosystem and potentially beyond. Most ecosystems have been in balance for millions of years before we showed up, so to have a native species be the problem is extremely rare.
Predatory urchins eat kelp, sea stars eat the urchins. If there were no sea stars to keep the urchins in check the urchins would completely ravage kelp forest ecosystems as the marine life that relies on the kelp forest for safety and food are forced to look elsewhere. Then all the urchins starve and die out
This is great news! This won't cure the disease, but it will certainly help researchers that are trying to.
For the first time in years I saw a 6 inch purple starfish the other week on the beach... I almost couldn't believe it.
Some of my most formative memories as a kid were seeing all of the starfish and collecting them at the docks... they were plenty... now there's nothing.
Me to. On Gabriola island there were millions, which disappeared 10 years to a few odd ones. I,m starting to see bunches of them again. I hope it’s a come back.
We've always had an aquarium, but i think we got it up and running again when i was like 15. I'm 27 now... All that to say, Every starfish I've seen in captivity has succumbed to chronic wasting. Usually it takes about 6 months to a year to really see it, but like death itself it seemed inevitable.
We tried nursing tanks, tank clean outs, Iodine, starfish vitamin formulas, probiotic enzymes for marine fish... I mean out tank is like 85 gallons and we've got 400 gallon per hour pump with a UV light and a canister filter. I have a wave maker on one end and the inlet for the filtered water coming in from the opposite end, I have two air pumps. One is used for an air lift filtration pump and the other is on the inlet hose oxygenation the water just before it re enters the tank. I have lake 12 fish non bigger than 4" and despite the rest of the tank being more than satisfied (I've had a pair of clown fish for 10 years and they've even spawned onto a rock with some string algae once) The star fish always, always, always dissolve away in about a year.
I know I'm rambling now, but if anyone knows any good tips for actually preparing this bath... Amounts of iodine and the exact vitamins? that'd be great.
I thought sea stars were bad for the kelp, if so why save them.
Quite the opposite. Sea stars are predators and eat sea urchins that consume kelp. Without that, the kelp will be destroyed by the fast eating and reproducing urchins. Right now, the imbalance created by this sea star plague is endangering the entire coastal ecosystem and potentially beyond. Most ecosystems have been in balance for millions of years before we showed up, so to have a native species be the problem is extremely rare.
Sea stars eat urchins, which eat kelp
Predatory urchins eat kelp, sea stars eat the urchins. If there were no sea stars to keep the urchins in check the urchins would completely ravage kelp forest ecosystems as the marine life that relies on the kelp forest for safety and food are forced to look elsewhere. Then all the urchins starve and die out