Orange Linkia food

paullondon

paullondon

New member
I purchased this orange linkia 3 days ago and now I am not sure about it... First I'm not sure it's an orange linkia, second, my tank is only one month old and I am not sure if there is enough food for it (from what I read) even if we have thousands of copepods and a yellowish algae film on the glass... The fish store where I got this had them for some time but in a huge coral tank...
Is there a way to create their food? A recipe that works?
The star hangs out where the current is the strongest, in front of my canister filter outlet. I don't have any filter media in the canister except a small bag with GFO. When I turn off the pumps to feed the fish, the star starts moving around... wen the pumps go back on, she goes exactly in the same spot and sits there...
I will attach the movie and some pictures to this post for better identification and advise...
Thank you

https://youtu.be/wvfTSW1IBTc
 

Attachments

  • DSC00123.jpg
    DSC00123.jpg
    48.6 KB · Views: 1
  • DSC00136_2.jpg
    DSC00136_2.jpg
    37.7 KB · Views: 1
It is extremely difficult to make their food source. It's just one of them natural occuring things growing in established aquaria. You can excellerate it by spraying food around the tank (or in other words.. putting unwanted phosphates and silicates in the tank to supplement microalgae and biofilm) but other than that.. it's pretty hopeless I'm afraid. Some say blue linckia can eat asterinas time to time.. and sponges are in their general diet which in reef tanks aren't exactly the most plentiful food option.

Now there is the possibility that it is a Echinaster sp. however whether or not that's the case with yours I'm not sure.. usually Echinasters are more bumpy in texture in comparison to orange linckia however they are so similar it's a guessing game down to the collection location.
 
Calappidae said:
It is extremely difficult to make their food source. It's just one of them natural occuring things growing in established aquaria. You can excellerate it by spraying food around the tank (or in other words.. putting unwanted phosphates and silicates in the tank to supplement microalgae and biofilm) but other than that.. it's pretty hopeless I'm afraid. Some say blue linckia can eat asterinas time to time.. and sponges are in their general diet which in reef tanks aren't exactly the most plentiful food option.

Now there is the possibility that it is a Echinaster sp. however whether or not that's the case with yours I'm not sure.. usually Echinasters are more bumpy in texture in comparison to orange linckia however they are so similar it's a guessing game down to the collection location.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your quick response. I thought there is a commercially formulated paste/film/gel or something, or some trick invented by the hobbyists for this linkias...
Have you ever tried something that worked?
 
Personally, I don't bother purchasing linckia species to avoid showing demand for them. Kinda one of those, best left in the wild animals like horseshoe crabs, but collected anyway due to the few success rates and people still having a go at them.. see twin spot gobies. Fromias are much worse in this catergory as linckia do have some options like sponges, and every so often we hear and see images of them devouring asterina stars. Just the first is hard to supplement and the later is unconfirmed to be a normal thing right now.

However as I pointed out, I do know somebody around here somewhere who just sprays some kind of food (forget what) that contributes to the film's growth (it isn't feeding the biofilm directly, just manipulating the water quality with nutrients your typical microalgea and bacteria love). My perspective on that method though, is killing the star with nitrate and phosphate levels higher than adverage since that would be a huge bioload to take on for filteration, not to mention the filteration would catch up to it eventually after some minicycles and you would have to double the dose as time goes on.

The film would thrive more in similar conditions to diatoms, spreading at a rapid rate for the star to thrive on.. but then again, if your tank is in those conditions, a starfish wouldn't exactly thrive with the water quality end of it.

It's a tricky thing to pull off, but it's by all means possible.
 
Calappidae said:
Personally, I don't bother purchasing linckia species to avoid showing demand for them. Kinda one of those, best left in the wild animals like horseshoe crabs, but collected anyway due to the few success rates and people still having a go at them.. see twin spot gobies. Fromias are much worse in this catergory as linckia do have some options like sponges, and every so often we hear and see images of them devouring asterina stars. Just the first is hard to supplement and the later is unconfirmed to be a normal thing right now.

However as I pointed out, I do know somebody around here somewhere who just sprays some kind of food (forget what) that contributes to the film's growth (it isn't feeding the biofilm directly, just manipulating the water quality with nutrients your typical microalgea and bacteria love). My perspective on that method though, is killing the star with nitrate and phosphate levels higher than adverage since that would be a huge bioload to take on for filteration, not to mention the filteration would catch up to it eventually after some minicycles and you would have to double the dose as time goes on.

The film would thrive more in similar conditions to diatoms, spreading at a rapid rate for the star to thrive on.. but then again, if your tank is in those conditions, a starfish wouldn't exactly thrive with the water quality end of it.

It's a tricky thing to pull off, but it's by all means possible.
Click to expand...

Truly, that sounds really tedious and dangerous for the whole system. It triggers my curiosity tho...

Pondering on the subject I was thinking of two other methods that I will be curious from expert's opinion....

Method 1:
In a clean transparent container, spread NLS Nutri Gel for marine fish on the walls. Float the container in the main tank, fill it gently with water from the tank so the parameters and temperature will be the same, place the sea star in the floating container and let it eat for 30-40 min, then place it back in the main tank...

Method 2:
In a similar container filled with aquarium water, place marine fish food, let it sit in the light just with an air pump until a bacterial and algae film forms on the walls. Dump the foul water without scrubbing the walls and float the container in the main tank, gently filling it with aquarium water, place the sea star in it to feed for a period of time then remove it to the main tank.

Would any of this methods be possible?
 
The 1st method sounds a little too stressful to the star (taking it in an out of the water to move it)

Method 2 might work, however the only problem is you're not guarenteed that, THAT biofilm would grow. Your result may be diatoms, cyano, or something different. An empty container wouldn't have the potential biodiversty a large reef tank would to potentially introduce "a seed" to the correct biofilm. Having rubble and liverock in the container could be a soft solution, despite the odds, however it's really a guessing game when it comes to finding out if you do have the correct stuff.

Another thought in the back of my mind was if the biofilm would disintegrate on impact with the water, the film is made up of colonal bacteria so it's not exactly rooted like an algea, they do not like high water flow as if you so much as wave your hand it kinda blows off, hence why diatoms and cyano don't like growing in a powerhead's current. The leftover supply by the time the whole procedure is successfully preformed wouldn't be significant enough to last the star long. All this would be doing is supplementing the star with some biofilm alongside what's already in the aquarium. Floating the container and pooring the water from the aquarium into it wouldn't be a solution either as you don't want to take away the proper filteration for the star during feeding periods. (Which, being a slow star, would be long feeding periods. It'd be awhile to get the star eating after the sudden movement probably.)
 
Last edited:
hey paul, i have an orange linkia. i keep it in a four gallon vase.
i have no filtration and do daily water changes. it's a deep sandbed and feed live planktons. it took me months of carefully cultivating three differing species of sponge in my vase until i felt comfortable trying a starfish. everybody poopood my purchase. i wanted a clean up crew that was different. i had live sponges growing in amongst my corals. i went for it.
as it goes, it never ate any of the sponges that i noticed. i tried a few different things. oysters, fish, scallop flesh. a month went by. nothing. it ran away from all that food. i couldn't get it to eat. it was shrinking.
then one day, just before i thought of returning the star to the lfs, i tried a few pellets. fish food pellets. red ones. about a year or two old. i dropped some smaller pellets in some tankwater and soaked it for a minute. using a feeder syringe with straw attached, i place some soft pellets between the legs of the star as it was stuck to the glass. at first it let them drop. but i got a response. so i tried again. this time the star trapped the pellets and started to eject its stomach.
i've been feeding my orange linkcia pellets for a while now, i've even done a few time lapses.
i would try and try again with this star. i think you can stabilize it with pellets. but your tank is far too clean to be housing a starfish. let it get dirty. your star does look like it's in good health though. if you have to go to the local pet store to get pellets, get the cheap kind, that's what i'm using.

20150314_013248.jpg
 
Last edited:
Linkia is eating!!!!!

Linkia is eating!!!!!

So after she spent 2 days in that high flow spot, this morning at feeding time when all the pumps were off (except the skimmer) and the clown fish was eating, I decided to drop a few bits of food at the base of my linkia's arms. Its body was sticking to the glass so it was really easy to introduce the food. The star opened, extended her stomach and covered a brine shrimp, she manipulated the other two pieces of brine shrimp towards her mouth, she even twisted and moved to incorporate them all. I was watching it for 50 min... yeah she spent 50 min with that shrimps completely incorporated in her stomach or whatever, my camera had no batteries and I couldn't find the magnifier glass to closely observe what's going on, but it was that brown mass that looks clearly like its cardiac stomach in your picture, except mine incorporated the shrimps into it, then after about 40 min she formed like a cup, becoming concave and holding everything there. I turned on the pumps as I was afraid I will damage the bacteria on and inside the live rock if I keep the flow off for more than an hour... but she was keep doing her job staying in that concave shape... After another 10-15 min she expulsed a yellowish ball that was very easy, not sinking and looked like shrimp carcass mixed with glue. The small yellowish ball was quickly sucked in by the skimmer. After this happening the star instead of spending her time in the usual spot, started to roam all over the place, like a happy kid playing... and she still is roaming, exploring every inch of the habitat. I'm not sure if she ate or what did she do, but it was surely a change in behavior after all this, she is like Energizer bunny...
I wonder if the brine shrimp will be enough for its nutrition requirements, or like you said I should introduce the pellets which probably have micro algae and other vitamins and minerals... The reason I am feeding vitamin gut loaded shrimp is because I don't want to introduce other substances in my aquarium, like preservatives in dry pellets and extra ash...
So if she's eating the brine shrimp, should I stay on them or change to pellets?
This is getting so exciting... I will turn into a star fish maniac....
 
gogo7 said:
hey paul, i have an orange linkia. i keep it in a four gallon vase.
i have no filtration and do daily water changes. it's a deep sandbed and feed live planktons. it took me months of carefully cultivating three differing species of sponge in my vase until i felt comfortable trying a starfish. everybody poopood my purchase. i wanted a clean up crew that was different. i had live sponges growing in amongst my corals. i went for it.
as it goes, it never ate any of the sponges that i noticed. i tried a few different things. oysters, fish, scallop flesh. a month went by. nothing. it ran away from all that food. i couldn't get it to eat. it was shrinking.
then one day, just before i thought of returning the star to the lfs, i tried a few pellets. fish food pellets. red ones. about a year or two old. i dropped some smaller pellets in some tankwater and soaked it for a minute. using a feeder syringe with straw attached, i place some soft pellets between the legs of the star as it was stuck to the glass. at first it let them drop. but i got a response. so i tried again. this time the star trapped the pellets and started to eject its stomach.
i've been feeding my orange linkcia pellets for a while now, i've even done a few time lapses.
i would try and try again with this star. i think you can stabilize it with pellets. but your tank is far too clean to be housing a starfish. let it get dirty. your star does look like it's in good health though. if you have to go to the local pet store to get pellets, get the cheap kind, that's what i'm using.

20150314_013248.jpg
Click to expand...

I didn't get a feeding response today, I tried with gut loaded brine shrimps like yesterday when everything went perfect....
I wonder if you get a feeding response every day or only once in a while?
 
Orange Linckia feeding movie

Orange Linckia feeding movie

Hi Martyn,

I just saw your movie on YouTube and I was in awe...
I got the 2nd feeding response today and I had my camera there but the star was in the corner... still the everted stomach is clearly seen and the feeding process... I am so happy we are on the right path with this. I hope this will be helpful for all the hobbyists trying to keep Orange linckia alive.
What's next? Blue or purple linckia?
Here my movie: https://youtu.be/6Na-G_MuHHA
 

Attachments

  • DSC00035.jpg
    DSC00035.jpg
    39.7 KB · Views: 1
What I'm most curious about is if this is true for all Linckia. As far as I'm concerned all linckia species have the same diet, however we see them occasionally attack strange things like asterina stars. Perhaps orange linckia, a somewhat less common species from blue linckia, is more likely to adapt to other foods?

Try feeding the orange guy and asterina if you could. The blues ones have had moderate success on that diet according to a few people here.

Now as I said in my first post.. there is a possability it's not a linckia at all but a Echinaster sp. Orange linckia and certain Echinaster species are identical in appearence, the distinguishing characteristic lies on the location it was collected and feeding routine, the later we're experimenting to discover potential linckia food sources, so we'll just be down to origin. Personally, I'm leaning more towards it IS a linckia, but confirmation would be very important if we take any experimental feedings with a grain of salt.

If the feedings appear successful on a regular basis (like they are now) than we can disclude this as a coincidence (like the old harlequin shrimp eating hake rumor).
 
Last edited:
Hi Joe,
I was so curious about that asterina stars and looking for them in my tank I discovered the staurocladia oahuensis... but no sign of asterina. Should I seed them somehow? Can I order them online? Another concern with eating asterina would be the nutritional value. The Hikari brine shrimps I use are gut loaded with vitaminized food (at least that's what they say on the box...).
As we see Martyn was successful with pellets which means the dietary preferences are not that narrowed as we think.
I will keep changing info with Martyn and take notes of every detail and aspect of this project.
For now, I want the star to eat and be comfortable eating in the main tank, later on I may experiment in a specially designated environment in which I will change temperatures, salinity etc.
If I can get a grasp of the eating habit, time period, fasting period... also how to improve the feeding response... what time of the day is the best... I will post everything here.
Also I will ask Martyn where did he get his star. I got mine from Bill at Incredible Aquarium and he told me to feed it when it's hungry... so he was right... he is always right :) I did a dripping acclimation when I got the star but not more than 30 min since my water is very similar to his 1.026 salinity and 78F.
I would never do a dripping acclimation for a star shipped in a bag. The ammonia levels are high and the pH is low, which gives the star a chance to survive the ammonia, if you bring up the pH the ammonia becomes very toxic and it's a 99% dead sea star. If people really insist in dripping acclimation do it in 2 stages. After bringing the temp to the tank's T level, match the salinity and the pH with star's water in separate floating container and put the star in there, now that you don't have ammonia you can drip acclimate for pH and salinity. But I bet it's neither pH or salinity that kills them since in tidal pools of shallow water where this stars are often found the salinity varies with rains and temperature with day/night cycle... I am curious to experiment with pH shock and salinity variations, just to see what happens. I am almost sure the culprit is the ammonia and the lack of oxygen.
Now for the species to be sure, I am going to ask Bill where he got the star from and at a later time I will run a genetic test to confirm 100%. Hopefully we can get a glimpse in how to successfully feed and keep this stars even in new aquariums and small saltwater tanks... so far so good and I am really happy.
 
I got my asterinas from other tanks. I have a library near me with a saltwater tank and the guy let's me take some of his asterinas. In the past I've also asked one of my LFS's employees to sell me some asterinas from their tanks at home to repopulate one of mine. Withen a months time; 50 become over 100. As far as I'm concerned nobody really sells them online due to no demand for them.

..And unforunately now I have an asterina infestation in my 125 gallon.. with harlequin shrimp! Looks like I got one of the feeder reject species harlys don't like in my tank.. ugh.
 
Orange Linckia 2nd feeding response in the same day

Orange Linckia 2nd feeding response in the same day

New feeding video: https://youtu.be/C3BcBwFRHi8

Now this is new. I didn't even notice it was a 2nd feeding response until I transferred the videos from my camera on my computer. It was in the same day I fed her frozen brine shrimps.
This confirms feeding responses are random and the sea star will not have a fasting period in the aquarium even if well fed early in the same day.
Also what we can see in this video: 2nd Feeding response video is the sea star reacting promptly to anything touching her tube feet, this time was a small air bubble. My next observation will be where exactly on her body the food triggers a feeding response. I will try dropping the food at different distance from her mouth and place it on skin, avoiding abrupt falls on the tube feet.
Enjoy the new pictures and if anyone else on the forum wants to join our project is more then welcome... trying to feed and experimenting how to successfully keep this animals will be nice...

picture.php



Here you can see how the food looks like cooked. It takes only a few moments after the stomach is everted for the food to change color and texture.

picture.php
 
Some Great Info

Some Great Info

Just want to drop in and say, Glad i was given this link to the thread. Some great facts and reads on here. Will be glad to add some good pics of my different stars eating.
 
Geokiris said:
They also have been documented eating asterina star fish...those little white pests.
Click to expand...

It's unconfirmed for orange linckia however we've seen evidence for the blue variations.

Which is why I've asked if anybody was willing to give it a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

U
DIY Fish food
Replies
3
Views
326
griss
griss
E
Under microscope Berghia eggs are alive but no hatch, crustacean ID?
Replies
3
Views
279
kharmaguru
kharmaguru
R
Orange Disc on Snail
Replies
16
Views
1K
Ryancalz
R
Broken reefer
Redflex sump
Replies
3
Views
252
griss
griss
F
Starting tank again
Replies
6
Views
566
Dr. Reef
Dr. Reef
Back
Top