Orange Starfish, what to feed? And other questions

[fishquaria]

I recently got an orange starfish, which I think is a Fromia elegans from a dealer/friend of mine. He said that it is a hardy type and that to just put it in my tank and leave it there. He has no reason to give me wrong information as he doesn't charge me for livestock. When I put it in the tank it moved around a bit and I placed it upside down and it turned itself up in a matter of minutes. It's been exactly a week since it came into my tank. However it has spent the last four or so days in virtually one place (small movements). There is no sign of Necrosis or anything like that. I was wondering whether I should feed it anything? And how do you target feed?

I've had success with starfish before in an older tank. However these starfish were put in there and they were perfectly fine for years, they even survived two moves, until one day someone had switched off the filters, when I was out of town, thinking it was the right thing to do? But I'm a bit worried about this guy as he's been in virtually the same place. Please tell me what to do?

 

[greenbean36191]

They generally don't take to target feeding and their diet isn't known anyway. It's believed that they feed on biofilms that grow on tank surfaces, which you can't supplement. As a result they tend to only last about a year or so before they starve in tanks with less than about 100 lbs of mature LR.

 

[Reefmack]

My Fromia sat in the same spot when I first put it the tank - for a good 2 weeks, and I thought it was DOA. But it kept it's brilliant red color. After 2 weeks it finally started moving. Mine moves extremely slowly, but the next time you look he may be in a totally different place in the tank.

 

[GoingPostal]

Did you acclimate it at all? Starfish are pretty touchy to changes in water parameters, the stress of improper acclimation is a common killer of these starfish. It'll just start falling apart. If that doesn't happen within a few weeks it should be alright until it starves to death. They don't take to feedings since we don't know what they eat.

 

[fishquaria]

It moves around a bit. I put it upside down again yesterday and it got back up and has found a new spot now. It does move but sort of within a limited area. Let's hope for the best.

 

[mscarpena]

It might be eating or just adjusting leave it alone unless you see it start to degrade. Stars need lots of live rock very good and stable water parameters and need to be very slowly acclimated over abot 1-2 hours drip method. Hope you di that or it will probably die.

 

[fishquaria]

Hey, an update for all you guys and a thank you for all your help. The starfish has regained its original colour this morning and seems to be moving a little bit more than usual. Let's hope its gonna be ok... please do continue to give me more information if you can... thanks.

 

[chrisstie]

Just don't flip the poor thing over- if a starfish is going to be on its way out you'll definitely see signs of some bad mojo going on and then be able to remove them from the tank. I think a lot of starfish will move slowly when they are feeding off of the surfaces in your tank and move quicker to find new places to graze