Best survival rate for a starfish?

[BrandonFlorida]

What are the best starfish to put into a tank knowing that they will survive?

anyone have any good suggestions?

I had two red fromia stars and they started to melt and both died within 24 hours of eachother.

Could a crab have killed both of them? For some stuff I read they starve even thou most places list them as detritus and algae eaters.

Thanks

 

[Bent]

Most reef safe starfish except serpents and brittles are doomed.

The only downside to those two is depending on their size they can become predatory.

 

[Timfish]

I have brittle/serpent stars decades old and haven't had problems with them. Many, many people have small brittle/serpent stars reproducing in their systems. Asterina stars are another that will readily reproduce. These animals are scavengers and I strongly suspect many of the reports of larger brittle/serpents and asterina stars killing and eating tankmates are them just doing their job. I certainly have not had problems with them in any of my tanks over the years. Many of the "reef" safe stars like Linkia and Fromia have very very low survival rates and end up melting after a few weeks or months. Fromia especially in my opinion should never be purchased.

 

[GimpyFin]

Orange linckias are fairly solid as long as there is decent sand/rock for them to roam around and find food. (Stay away from the blue ones, though.) Sand sifting stars are also an easier star to keep. I've had one of each for about 7-8 months now.

 

[mcgyvr]

serpent, brittle, sand sifters
(first 2 get BIG)

All others..good luck..

 

[rockslide123]

I have had two orange linkia. The first I had for about a year before he died after a house move, the second I still have (about two years now). My current linkia has almost regrown an arm he was missing when I got him so I am assuming he's getting enough to eat and is healthy.

I think your best bet is find one that has been in a dealers tank for a while (month or more) that is still doing well. Drip acclimate very slowly (4+ hours). keep them in a large, (>100 gallon) well established (>1 year), well fed tank and they seem to do fine. Water parameters that change suddenly or get out of normal range can cause problems fast. Hope this helps.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

So I should stay away from fromia stars? I may have to try an orange linkia. I just don't wanna kill another tank mate. First two deaths since I started my new 180 gallon tank. Plus the wife loves them.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

I do have two harlequin serpent stars but I never see them at all.. Not even sure if they are alive or not but I do broadcast feed the entire tank. Probably over feed them but I do water changes weekly

 

[PIPSTER]

I've had a red knobby (Not to be confused with the "knobbed" starfish which is not reef safe) that is a scavanger and has done fine, and is reef safe...never had any problems with it at all.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

I've had a red knobby (Not to be confused with the "knobbed" starfish which is not reef safe) that is a scavanger and has done fine, and is reef safe...never had any problems with it at all.

Do you have a photo of the reef and non reef safe ones? My LFS has them at times.

 

[billdogg]

I have brittle/serpent stars decades old and haven't had problems with them. Many, many people have small brittle/serpent stars reproducing in their systems. Asterina stars are another that will readily reproduce. These animals are scavengers and I strongly suspect many of the reports of larger brittle/serpents and asterina stars killing and eating tankmates are them just doing their job. I certainly have not had problems with them in any of my tanks over the years. Many of the "reef" safe stars like Linkia and Fromia have very very low survival rates and end up melting after a few weeks or months. Fromia especially in my opinion should never be purchased.

Thanks for posting this. Saved me the trouble of typing it all out.

I would avoid Green Brittle Stars - they can get VERY large and I have seen one hunt for sleeping fish at night. Very cool to watch, until you realize that it just caught your prized $$$fish.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

Yeah im not a fan of any brittle stars.

 

[Cliving1]

I had a blue linkia for 2 years in college. I had a large sponge population and I attribute that to my success. When I moved I returned the starfish to my lfs who was happy to take him back. I think diet and acclimation plays a large role for starfish.

 

[Sk8r]

Tank size matters when you're dealing with a creature that eats what grows in the tank.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

I would say a 180 gallon tank is big enough correct?

one was fine for about two months then I add another about 2 weeks ago and both died within 24-48 hr of eachother..

 

[SaltyMember]

I have a Harlequin starfish that is at least 6-7 years old. Don't see him much so I assume he is surviving off sanded and uneaten food.


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[GilliganReef]

2 years ago I purchased a LR that had a fancy brittle in it. Patrick is what we ended up naming it after sponge bob. When it first arrived in the tank it stayed inside the LR for 3 months. I notice it only had one arm on it then. Shocked that it survived an hour out of the water. Now 2 years later it is large with all 5 arms back. Only see him maybe once a month.

 

[Cliving1]

Tank size matters when you're dealing with a creature that eats what grows in the tank.

100% in agreement.

 

[ThRoewer]

I have 4 Fromia Sea Stars in my tank right now, 1 for over a year, 1 for a couple of months and 2 since last week.
Tank size may matter, but more important is that the tank is not too clean.
How good they do depends also very much on how they were treated during collection and shipment. And of course how well they were acclimated at each station.

I had Fromia milleporella sea stars coming in and starting to fall apart right away which indicates that they had been damaged somewhere along the supply chain.

One smaller Fromia was harassed to death by my regal angels, who liked to nip on its feet. At least I think it is dead since I haven't seen it for a good while. If it's still somewhere I would have 5.

One sea star I bought at a local store likes to hang on the glass right below the water line.

My oldest is a Fromia Tile Sea Star (chocolate chip) from the Philippines.

 

[droth335]

We had 2 of these in our mixed reef tank for over 2 years and they did fine.

http://www.fishdb.com/db/salt/specimen/Red_Thorny_Starfish.php