Basket stars and feather stars

[Kreeger1]

Just checking to see who keeps these creatures and for how long. I know of one basket star that has been in captivity for 4 years now and is doing great, any others?
What do you feed them besides mysis shrimp if any?

My feather star seems to eat the phyto I feed and the roti feast I use as well.

I just got my first basket star so I'm pretty excited about adding another odd animal not kept by most.
Erik

 

[lhoy]

The reason they aren't kept by most is because they are almost certain to die. I hope it works well for you. I would love to see pics of the one you got.

One of those things best left in the ocean for now. It is a shame, they are one of the most beautiful of creatures.

What color?

Lee

 

[Kreeger1]

People have figured out how to keep them already, just most don't know how as the information isn't widely spread. I have no doubts that I will be able to keep it alive as my tank is setup for harder to keep things.
Mine is sort of skin colored I'd say. Probably medium to large.
I don't have ny pictures of it yet, but I was surprise that it fed with in 5 minutes f putting it into the tank. I fed the tank while I added the star and new fish to distract the other fish from picking at it and tasting the new thing.

Heres some of chucks pictures of his 4 year old basket star.

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI

Basket stars are relatively easy to keep, given that there are no fishes in the tank that nibble on them and that there is enough food available for them. As they only open when the main lights are out, it is necessary to feed them at this time. While I was living in the US I had a basket star for about 1.5 years, then I sold it together with the entire tank as I had to leave the country. During this time it grew from about 5 to 7 or 8 inches diameter. Feeding was easy, it loved small mysis and other decent sized food. It did not react on any artificial plankton or super fine food like cyclop eeze, it defintely wanted bigger stuff. Now that I live in Germany I would love to get one again , but for some strange reason they are not imported.

Feather stars are a completely different issue. The only ones that have a history of survival in reef tanks are the green ones with rather coarse arms, all the other multi-colored ones or those with real "feathery" arms will quickly fade away. There are a few people that have had some limited success with them, but either out of sheer luck or by making the survival of this animal a full time job. It is still not clear what these guys actually feed on, they do react on certain artificial plancton, but unless somebody comes up with a more definitive method for keeping them, they should be left in the Ocean.

Best wishes

Jens

 

[dendro982]

Had hitchhiking small basket stars on swiftia, but they likely both were damaged during shipping - switftia had RTN and the 1/2" (1 cm) in diameter basket stars were lethargic, but alive. Just disappeared within a week. But I have a small crab in this tank.

They are usually not available in LFS, IMHE. Torontians, chime in, please.

Kreeger1: maybe I already asked you, but can you give a link to your tank setup and maintenance routines, for all of us to learn (I would certainly benefit from this). Jens already has a thread, are you?

One thing more - do you use the natural saltwater?

 

[Kreeger1]

Don't use natural sea water, to far away from a ocean I use Instant Ocean.

My poor basket star died the next day, it was rotted out from the inside, probably starved to death in the store or in route to a store.
I'm waiting for him to get another one in.

My sort of tank thread is here
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1240790

I started with the non photo corals 4 or so months before this tank build started.

Almost everything is doing good in the new tank...minus a orange spot rabbit fish I bought that has tank a few nice nips at some of my corals...mainly the Diodogorgia nodulifera and purple brush Muriceopsis flavida.

Still looking for a fish trap to get him out

Erik