Day 3 of wasting in Leptasterias
The saga continues. When I checked on my ailing stars yesterday I saw, as expected, that most of what I had called Leptasterias #1 (the pink star that had ripped itself into pieces the day before) had disintegrated into small piles of mush. There was no sign of life in any of the small fragments so I threw them away. The largest piece, consisting of two adjacent arms attached to what looks like most of the central disc, was still walking around so I kept it. Today I was surprised to see that it hasn’t died yet. In fact, it looks a little better, with both of the arms active and the central disc appearing to be somewhat more contracted and less sloppy.
© Allison J. Gong
The two arms appear to be working together, rather than trying to walk away from each other. I think this is a good sign, although it’s too early tell how much longer this fragment of a star will survive.
The star I had designated Leptasterias #2, which had the very large lesion on Friday, had died and dissolved into a mass of amorphous tissue and skeletal ossicles when I looked at it yesterday.
On the other hand, Leptasterias #3, the larger of the two gray stars, seems to be holding its own, or at least not getting any worse. On Day 1 of the outbreak this star had a small fluffy lesion on its aboral surface. Today the wound appears to have grown a bit but its edges look a little cleaner:
© Allison J. Gong
This star was particularly active this morning. I didn’t want to disturb it or give it any incentive to autotomize its arms, so I left it in its screened container to take pictures and video. It was zooming around and acting, for all intents and purposes, like a normal healthy star.
Fingers crossed that this one makes it!