2 freshwater fish questions.?

Question

1. You know those starfish that they sell in souviner shops that aused to be real? Well I wondering if I could put one of those in my freshwater tank as decoration. Could it cause harm to the water/fish?

2. I was recently on vacation and once of my fish died. it was on the bottom of the tank for about 5 days. I know that if a dead fish sits it causes the water to become toxic. So I changed my water and filter but, my other fish is still acting sluggish. Do you think that it was from the water? Do you think she will get better once the water has been changed or should I just flush her?

Answer 1

On part one, it would be perfectly fine to put a dead starfish in the tank because, as their body dries, what is left is the hard minerals that made up the once living starfish. And, as with most oceanic invertibrates, it will be composed of primarily calcium. Calcium is never harmful to a freshwater aquarium in small ammounts. The only changes you will see is a slight increase in the pH, but that will not affect your fish.

On the downside though, starfish have very porous bodies, thus, the starfish will most likely float when you put it in the tank anyway.

Regarding your second question, it sounds like you did exactly what you should have done. The fish you have that it still alive may be recovering from the high ammounts of ammonia that was in the old water, and if that is the case, it should recover within a few weeks. There could be a possibility that it had nothing to do with the dead fish.

Answer 2

I would stray away from adding the starfish suv. because you could add a bunch of paracites and bacteria into your water. Which you don't want.

Just watch your other fish, make sure the water is clean. Don't flush her, especially if she's still alive. That's just mean. X3 If she developes other conditions such as strange growth, hospitalize her immediately and medicate her.

Answer 3

1. it will be fine

2.try amo lock just in case your fish have amonia witch fish act slugish when they do.............

Answer 4

for the first i think it wil not harm the tank and the water or rthe fish. for the second one i think you should get a new filter

Answer 5

the starfish wont hurt the fish.

How much water did you change.  I would only change about 25% of your water at a time.  Changing too much water will cause harm to the fish.  Does your fish have any white spots on the fins, any abnormalities to the fish?