Linkia, Fromia, and Sandshifting Stars over a Year

[firebirdbandit]

I am starting this thread so that people can post the max amount of time they have sucessfully kept a Linka, Fromia, or Sandshifting star alive in their tank. Please let us know what kind (orange, blue, marble, etc.) How long you acculmated them? Were they exposed to air? What tank setup they were in? The age of the tank when you put them in. And anything else that you feel attributed to the success. I want people to have the truth on these hard to keep starfish. I see too many threads on here showing pics of dead starfish. We need to educate ourselves before getting a starfish. I've had an orange linkia live for a little over a year before he dissapeared. I also had a very small fromia live about 6 months. I also have a sandshifter live over 2 years. Pictures would be appreciated of setups and starfish.

Here is a pic of my sandshifter star.

 

[tongascience]

i have had a six inch blue linckia in my 60gal reef for well over two years.added with the drip acclimation not exposed to air.but on the more delicate speices (iconaster) sea star -delicate life span only months. iv had in a tank for almost fifteen months now?. with no bacterial infections- (the most common death of seastars in reeftanks.words of wisdom <We need to educate ourselves before getting a starfish!!!!!!!sorry no pictures laptop got wet on a dive trip got to start allover.

 

[firebirdbandit]

Do you feed him anything?

 

[tongascience]

well they live in a tank with several types of sponges such as stylissa,callyspogia,haliclona,and some crazy neon yellow clathrina and some clear tranceparent glass looking sponge i think of the same species.they seem too feed on bacterial films on and around the edges of the sponges. but to answer your question i do direct a long bulb doser of a primereef/phytoplankton mixture once a week. but the linckia never seem to enjoy or even benifit by eating it and the iconaster (double star) its a mystery its still alive.

 

[firebirdbandit]

Interesting....Do you think that the addition of the sponges help the starfish a lot. What do you think would happen if you didn't have sponges. Do you notice them at the sponges the majority of the time or do they spend the same amount of time around the sponges as around everything else in the tank?

 

[tongascience]

i belive that the sponges may help. but i hardly see them on the sponges. and its about once a month or so i see them grazing a on film or algae around the sponges. but once i saw my blue linckia on a beutiful pseudaxinella red sponge sucking off these microoranisms encrusting the surface. sadly i no longer have that sponge and it released a tiny stream of mucus that when my only female black percula sucked it up- it had killed her. all this within 24hrs.

 

[Meisen]

I have a blue linkia going on 1.5 years. Well, actually it was at the lfs for about 6 months and now its been in my tank a year.

I dripped it over 12 hours in the sump. It got quickly lifted out of the water and into the tank (exposed to air I guess).

He/she/it grazes on the 150 lbs of live rock in my 120. The rock is mixed with some of it being fairly old so there is lots of weird stuff growing on it. I dont supplement it with any foods.

 

[willjeff]

I would like to see this thread go farther lets keep the info coming in.

 

[Meisen]

anyone have long-term luck with those double stars (look like fromia) while we are on the subject?