Brittle Star Aclimation

[Blake]

Do I have to slowly aclimate my brittle star, whom I will be getting tomorrow from FedEx? I have heard of stars "exploding" because their hydroskeleton or whatever didn't have enough time to adjust to a new osmotic pressure gradient.

[nobby]

hi
ive had a starfish explode on me and it aint a pretty sight, its back came off, then all its legs, i killed it in the end to put it out of its misery.
i now acclimatise my stars very carefully!

[FishDaddy]

Hi Blake,
Yes, Stars are especially sensitive. If you can get hold of an IV, drip tank water slowly for several hours, making sure there is some oxygen exchange (I use an open plastic container floating in a big bucket of water heated to tank temp).
Good luck!
Dick

[tdwyatt]

B;ale.
I have posted a proceedure for linckia seastars here before, if it is not in the archives, it whould be available with a search for "linckia" or "tdwyatt", if you can't find it here, I will be glad to email you a copy of the response to the thread.

Please take the time to slowly acclimatize the seastar, although brittle stars are not as bad as linckia seastars, they will still disintegrate due to osmotic pressure gradients if not acclimatized slowly.

HTH, Tom