# Chocolate Chip Starfish???



## chriswaxx

My CCS has what appears to be three white spots on his chips. Could this be a disease or maybe he's getting nibbled on???? There are two new things in the tank, a skunk cleaner shrimp and a hermit crab. please let me know.. Thanks


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## Fishfirst

I wouldn't worry much about it... check your water parameters... usually inverts die because of bad water conditions... check nitrates, nitrites, ammonia


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## TheOldSalt

Chocolate chips are pretty tough, but they, like all starfish, are pretty prone to infection.

Watch closely to see if anything is nibbling on it. Don't panic if you see the cleaner shrimp on the spots; it's only doing it's job. The shrimp would not have caused the wounds anyway. The hermit might have, but most likely the star just got rubbed by something, possibly the hermit walking over it.

If the spots should start to spread, the star can "melt" with horrifying swiftness. If it doesn't, though, stars have remarkable powers of regeneration, so if things are good in the tank it will probably heal okay.


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## Tipsy

Isnt a hermit crap a mollusk? WOnt the starfish kill it eventually?


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## redpaulhus

Tipsy @ 4/8/2005 said:


> Isnt a hermit crap a mollusk? WOnt the starfish kill it eventually?


Hermits are arthropods (crustacea specifically) and generally much too quick for a starfish to catch - any hermit slow enough to a CCS to eat is probably already dead or dying from other causes...


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## Tipsy

AAh lol not a saltwater tank keeper. I might use an old tank tho.


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