orange linkia sea star?

DebsSisterFlo

DebsSisterFlo

New member
I am curious what you think about these stars, and if I should chance adding one to my tank? Will it live? Is there any way to feed these critters? How many have had luck with them? I need to know asap, the order goes out on friday!

38g tank
50# live rock
20# sand
no skimmer, just two hob filters
pair of horses
pair of pj cardinals
firefish
bicolor blenny
peppermint shrimp and snails
zoo's, xenia, green tree, shrooms, rics, & trumpet coral.

thanks a bunch!:rolleyes:
 
People tend to have mixed results with Linckia sp. sea stars. They eat the biofilm on rockwork and substarte, but little is really understood about their dietary needs. In a tank that small, there's a good chance it would run out of food pretty quickly.
 
Agreed, I tried a blue Linkia a couple years ago, it died within 2 weeks. The worst part was that since they have no skeleton, you can pretty much bet that you'll be siphoning a bit of water to get rid of it... my wife said it was like cleaning warm jello pudding from the tank... nothing to "grab on to".

I should add that this one was in a 75 in the living room.

J
 
Sounds delicious. :lol:

I had a couple of the blues in my 155...and they lasted a few weeks and then just kind of disappeared. Keep in mind this was the tank that I kept baby clams and raised Banggai cardinals in without feeding them, so there was an abundance of mircofauna and food in the tank, just not whatever it is that Linckia stars eat, unfortunately.
 
hmm... well, you know, I'm going to try it... heck that's the fun of this hobby is trying and getting new things. I've been able to keep my horses alive for months now so maybe I can keep a star for a while too... it's going to be acclimated a loooong time!
 
good thats what they need
drip aclimate in a bucket and mix the water a lil ever 5 mins or so umk
at our store we have mixed luck too
generaly its like this,
blue linkia= hardest the aclimate
purple=meduim
orange=the easyest
 
If it were me I'd try a fromia instead.
They are hardier and smaller and reef safe.

Linkias rarely live long.
I thought I saw a blue one in Mako's tank though when he had the meeting. If so is it still it alive Mike?
Then again he also finds baby fish in his tank and I think he's got a lucky horseshoe up his butt lol.

kass
 
oooohhhhh....fromias. We are starfish challenged. We have a sand-sifting star that we've had for a year or so that's perfectly fine. But a while back (late last year maybe?) we got a marbled red fromia. I did a lot of research and found that yes, they are supposed to be much easier to keep than linkias. COOL! Well, we got it after watching the LA site intently for a couple months and waiting for one to come in stock (by the time we'd get the in-stock email alerts they'd already be gone again). We got that and some fish and hermits. It looked a little funny while still in the bag (white on the tips of its legs) but thought that was normal. We drip acclimated it for the recommended time, and it was still moving while in the bucket, but starting to look a little worse. Put it in the tank and it barely moved, thought it just had to get used to it. Within a couple hours it wasn't moving and the skiin started peeling off of it starting at those white ends. :( Needless to say that one did not last! (we called LA, they credited it back no problem. I was just really disappointed since I had been waiting for a few months for it to be available and we really wanted one!)

We tried again with a red fromia a couple months later. That one acclimated fine and lasted about a month before it disappeared, the crabs had a starfish feast apparently because we never found a carcass. So for us, fromias were not hardy, lol! After that experience there's no way we'd ever try a linkia since we couldn't even keep a fromia alive! (although the first one wasn't our fault)
 
I have 2 red knob sea stars, and although they are seid to be questionable in a reef tank, I have never had any problems with them. They have actually laid eggs a few times, and they are out constantly. They are my recommendation.
 
wow! I would love a starfish, my little neice is interested in seeing one, but man I don't want to get one that's just gonna up and die on me, or eat my corals, er, or my fish! lol!
 
Have you ever considered a serpent star? They are reef safe and move alot faster. Mine was always a great scavanger.

Jason
 
Unless it is a brittle star, you will not be able to keep shrimp...

My serpent stars will actually rush to attack shrimp. Don't know if they think they are brine shrimp, but the starfish are large enough where theywrap their legs around the shrimp and crush it.

Steve
 
I've heard that when they get bigger they'll hang like a tent and drop onto sleeping fish, I don't need that. I was hoping for a colorful and well behaved star...
 
Ive had 3 serpents in my 150 for about 8 yrs. I got them from a girl (who used to sell corals out their basement long story lol) for free that said they had broken arms so they were gonna die lol.

Maybe thats where my shrimp went hehe?

I never saw them attack anything except 1 time when I got rock from tampa bay I ordered the really cool big xmas tree worms.
The stars jumped right on those and sucked them out.
Weird cuz I have alot of feather dusters in there from a duster cluster and they don't bother those.

Jess I have some mini brittles if you want some that are hardy and wont harm anything.
I actually kept some sand sifters for a cpl years also but never had luck with fromias either. I only tried a linkia once many yrs ago and it died.
I always loved those small red fromias but you don't see those around much.

kass
 
I had one of those mini brittles... I've seen it two or three times since october. They're super cute but who knows if I still have it since I never see it!
 
i looooooooooooooove seeing babys. the baby brittle stars are just minituer vershions of there adults, but the baby serpents are soooooooooooooooo cute, there clearish white i usally only see them areound quarter size form leg to leg, and there rish around on the sand like theres a fire. lol. usally find them when i move a small rock, they smoosh under them to hide, they bkend in well with the sand too thuogh.
 
OWWWWW and if you pick one up and drop it from the top of the water level, they curl up into a little ball so one there way down a fish dosnt nibble a leg off.
 
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