starfishie with a cut

Question
hi, i have a blue starfish... im only new to the whole aqaurium thing (but my brother who is doing all the tank stuff knows what he is doing) any wany my starfsh wen i got him had a 0.5cm cut on his leg now it has turned to be at least 3cm long and has white stuff coming out of it... is he dropping his leg or do u think he will die from it... i know its probably not going to be a very good prognisis for my starfish but i wld just rather him not to suffer if that the case... i am a vet nurse so will be able to get hold of what i need to to help him, the tank is 58.12 gallons, 1x anamone (bubble tip), 1x clown fish, 1x twin spot gobby, 1x elegance coral, 1x hammer coral, 1x zenia coral, there is about 20kilograms of live rock and it is an aqua one Cube tank, the tank has been set up for 2months and is a reef set up with fish.please do help me cause i like my starfish.  thankyou very much for your time x amanda

Answer
Hi Amanda

Sorry to hear about the starfish.  It sounds like he may be coming down with an infection.  I would cut that entire limb off with a clean blade.  If you have good water parameters, the leg should grow back.  However, I think that there is a 50/50 chance of survival.

Is this starfish a blue linkia starfish? If it is, these starfish have dismal survival records in captivity.  If you want to give it the best chance of survival, I would probably add another 80-100kg of live rock.

I hope this helps.  Please get back to me if you have anymore questions.

Kind Regards

Michael