Sand Sifting Starfish looks like its gonna explode

I'd flip him over and help him get rid of the gas bubble caught under the middle section....

 

well is that coral at the bottom of your tank? i thought sand sifting stars liked sand? i could be wrong? but?

 

air bubble...hmmm...this is an interesting one...lemme try ryt away

Half of the tank is with sand and the other half with coral...Hez been there in the tank for 3 months now

 

I mean, you said he floats. Stars don't float, unless something is making them buoyant. The only thing I could think of that would make it buoyant would be a bubble of gas; maybe accumulated over time from microbubbles in the tank?

 

True in a sense because i have some tubing from the airpump underneath the crushed corals...Maybe this air could be troubling it or like you said accumulated at the center...Anyways am off now and checking it out ryt away

 

Sometimes rotting flesh and bacteria create pockets of trapped air..... they can be very gaseous critters.

 

now i see whaqt you were asking. that is a strange occurence , and hopefulyy you can fix him up or it worksd its way out naturally. just dont stick a pin in him. good luck and let us know whats going on.

guy

 

I feel like a dum now...Thanks blackraven....that was the issue...I just flipped him and out came a huge bubble....I thought he himself had swollen up and didnt want to disturb him at all..thats why i didnt fiddle with him...The air stone under the crushed coral could be triggering an air gap on his body when he is inside the corals searching for food...

Thanks a lot people for all your inputs...

 

Yeah, get the air stone out of the coral, and put it somewhere that nothing can get near the bubbles, like in the sump. Bubbles can build up in corals too, and some fish can be sensitive to them.

 

Why are you running the air stone in the first place?? They are not needed in saltwater tanks, with the exeption of when you use some meds, and they make your salt creep even worse.