Last night was kind of creepy...
I was on the phone and was looking into my tank when I noticed this orange glob stuck in my Tunze pump strainer.. I didn't even recognize it at first.
Then I realized it was my Linkia starfish!
:'(
I tried to pull it off but one of it's legs had made it's way into the strainer and I had to pull real hard to get it out of there. As I was doing this, I noticed that the leg was reduced to mostly bone - most of the meat was gone.
When I got it off, it looked like a goner. It was mutilated real bad. Not just the one leg, but the whole thing from the force of the pump. :'(
It was so rough, that the first thing I did was throw it in the trash can. I mean, it was hard to recognize what it was!
Then several minutes later I was feeling bad, I remembered that they can grow back new legs. SO this was about 20 minutes since I tossed it but I dug through the trash and pulled it out.
It had loosed up a bit and was no longer in a ball. At this point I made a decision, I held it with one hand and snapped the bone/rest of the leg off with the other.
I know you are not supposed to expose these things to air, but I decided to put it back in the tank.
SUre enough 30 minutes later it was crawling around in there - bones exposed and everything. Not just on the missing leg either - this thing is beat up bad!
But, hey, it's alive. And I hope it pulls through. That's gotta hurt!
matt
