how long have you had the red linckia and in what size tank are you housing it?
Reef safe/hardy starfish?!!
- Thread starter AndysReef
- Start date
how long have you had the red linckia and in what size tank are you housing it?
accordsirh22
New member
i dont remember exactly, 3-4 months i think?
http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Live-...on&utm_term=176800L&utm_campaign=pricegrabber
i have 2 of these from the local fish tank and acclimated and put them in 2 days ago, they have moved a little bit, one more so then the other. but they look to be doing okay. Really cool star fish that move really really fast.
i have 2 of these from the local fish tank and acclimated and put them in 2 days ago, they have moved a little bit, one more so then the other. but they look to be doing okay. Really cool star fish that move really really fast.
wii64brawl
New member
K&P aquatics sell something called a "common starfish" I and many others have ordered these and have had them do very well. They are totally reef safe and hardy and have the Standard starfish look to them.
This is mine(bad picture because he is sitting under a magenta light. He's actually orange).
K&Ps Picture
They are coral safe for the most part, but not bivalve or sponges safe whatsoever. And it looks more like Echinaster echinophorus the Asterias forbesi to me.
rssjsb
New member
Can you tell us more about your experience on this subject? I don't have clams, but do have some sponges in my tank that I wouldn't want to risk (haliclona, I think).
wii64brawl
New member
Clams are what constitutes most of what I feed mine. I pull open the shell of a littleneck clam a bit, and within a day, my Asterias forbesi and Echinaster echinophorus have finished it. The clams are about 2.5" wide and the A. forbesi is about 1" wide and the E. echinophorus is about 2.5" wide. I did once try to feed my E. echinophorus a ball sponge, but he didn't eat it. Maybe it was toxic. So I personally have never witnessed it, but most sources claim that sponges are a big part of their diet.
And since sponges from the Haliclona genus are from the Indo Pacific and are known to have fairly toxic chemical defenses, and E. echinophorus only occurs in the Atlantic, I don't think that there would be a problem.
For what it's worth, K&P Aquatics told me that the pic above (which is from their website) is of the Echinaster sentus. They also said that the ones that they sell on their website called "Knobby starfish" is the echinaster echinophorus.
wii64brawl
New member
But they're both in the same genus and are morphologically similar. I would assume for the sake of erring on the safe side that they both will pray on bivalves.
