I was browsing on sea life inc. and found a basket star. I read the reviews and a couple people on that site seemed to have good luck with it, I have the gorg already in my tank. Is this something that can be kept in a reef tank long term? Is phyto and so marine snow every night enough to feed it? Thanks.
basket star?
- Thread starter wilawalo
- Start date
philter4
New member
I have kept them several times, and they require lots and lots of food, not an easy animal to keep. I kind of like the hard to keep animals and I have several tricks that I've invented to feed things like this. My current feeding method consists of a power head attached to some 1/2 flex tubing. Along the tubing I've put plastic airline valves and siliconed them into place. to these I attach air tubing and placed the tubing to end near my non photosynthetic octocorals and 2 that are set up right in the current next to where my basket star hangs out at night. The power head is inside a small palls plastic critter keeper and I've fitted fine screen over the slots in the top to make it so the food doesn't just flow right out into the tank. I then add a mix of phytoplankton and frozen cyclops and vitimins to the container and plug the power head in. The food is then pushed through the airline onto the feeding stations that I've hooked up. I've kept basket stars and featherstars this way for over a year.
This is big and bulky, but it works great and I just turn it on after the lights have been out. It takes several hours for all the food to go through the tubes and when empty it doesn't hurt anything to run for the rest of the night. In the morning I unplug and do it again the next night. I have the whole thing hidden so I can't really get a good photo, the lines were put in with this in mind while I set it up so it is easy to hide the air tubing, and the plastic tub is centered behind rock as well so I have easy access to the top, but you can't see it when looking streight on. I have a new nano that is 29 gal that I have put the airline in for a similar set up, but the tank is so much smaller then my reef that I will have to make a special box for this tank, all the premade ones are way too big.
All in all, basket stars do not do well in tanks, most are doomed because they are already starving by the time they get to the hobbyiests tanks. I'm lucky in having them native so I can bring them from the ocean to my tanks with no middle man or delay in care, I think this helps a lot. even so, I usually end up losing them after 12 to 14 months which to me isn't successful, but I keep trying and experimenting and with all of the new foods I hope to someday keep them longer and healthy. I have had much better luck with feather stars, keeping a golden one for more the 2 years and it is still growing. I had to recently give it away as it got so big it couldn't spread out all the way.
This is big and bulky, but it works great and I just turn it on after the lights have been out. It takes several hours for all the food to go through the tubes and when empty it doesn't hurt anything to run for the rest of the night. In the morning I unplug and do it again the next night. I have the whole thing hidden so I can't really get a good photo, the lines were put in with this in mind while I set it up so it is easy to hide the air tubing, and the plastic tub is centered behind rock as well so I have easy access to the top, but you can't see it when looking streight on. I have a new nano that is 29 gal that I have put the airline in for a similar set up, but the tank is so much smaller then my reef that I will have to make a special box for this tank, all the premade ones are way too big.
All in all, basket stars do not do well in tanks, most are doomed because they are already starving by the time they get to the hobbyiests tanks. I'm lucky in having them native so I can bring them from the ocean to my tanks with no middle man or delay in care, I think this helps a lot. even so, I usually end up losing them after 12 to 14 months which to me isn't successful, but I keep trying and experimenting and with all of the new foods I hope to someday keep them longer and healthy. I have had much better luck with feather stars, keeping a golden one for more the 2 years and it is still growing. I had to recently give it away as it got so big it couldn't spread out all the way.
