Can our aquariums acommodate starfish?
- Thread starter awestruck
- Start date
greenbean36191
Premium Member
It depends on what you mean by average. Some of the omnivorous species like "knobby stars" do fine in captivity but they aren't reef safe. Linckia and Fromia need large tanks with lots of LR to find whatever it is they eat. Sand sifting stars almost never do well since they need more food than most tanks can produce. Asterina is probably the only genus I would say does well in an "average" tank.
One big problem with stars is that they're really sensitive to changes in salinity and pH. That means by the time they've passed through the chain of custody between the ocean and your tank there's a good chance that someone caused them some damage. Feeding is the other big issue. For most species their diets aren't well studied. For the ones we do know the diets of the amount they need to eat is often an issue. Since lots of them don't take to target feeding, if the tank doesn't produce enough of their food there isn't really anyway we can do.
One big problem with stars is that they're really sensitive to changes in salinity and pH. That means by the time they've passed through the chain of custody between the ocean and your tank there's a good chance that someone caused them some damage. Feeding is the other big issue. For most species their diets aren't well studied. For the ones we do know the diets of the amount they need to eat is often an issue. Since lots of them don't take to target feeding, if the tank doesn't produce enough of their food there isn't really anyway we can do.
BrianPlankis
Premium Member
I would add to the list brittle or serpent stars as being relatively easy to keep in our home aquariums. They are easier to keep than Fromia or Linckia stars as they usually will accept target feeding of meaty food quite readily.
In fact they can get TOO good at eating meaty food, stealing it from corals (one of their downsides). One of the large green serpent stars (I don't remember the genus and species) is very good at capturing and eating fish, so personally I just avoid any large green brittlestar with how poorly people typically ID starfish.
Brian
In fact they can get TOO good at eating meaty food, stealing it from corals (one of their downsides). One of the large green serpent stars (I don't remember the genus and species) is very good at capturing and eating fish, so personally I just avoid any large green brittlestar with how poorly people typically ID starfish.
Brian
awestruck
New member
Thank you for your responses. Star fish are really interesting, beautiful creatures--I have had two different kinds in the past and they both died even though everything else in the tank was flourishing. After learning more, I believe they probably starved to death which obviously makes me feel terrible. That's why I posted this thread too: it just sounds like very few do well.
