Sea Star Recommendations

[mike61289]

I'm looking into adding either one or two starfish to my aquarium. The tank is 75 gallons, 100+ lbs of live rock, 2-3 inches of live sand. It has been up and running since July.

Ideally, I'm looking for one that will be visible during the day and might also travel through the sand. A detritus and algae feeder would be great.

I would love to keep either the blue or purple linkia and/or a marble star. I've kept the blue linkia and marble for longterm in the past and would love to try to the purple linkia this time around.

Does anyone have any experience with the purple linkia? Any other suggestions/recommendations?

 

[gogo7]

nope.....had a red linckia that fed on pellets and fresh, pieces of live rock and seafood, almost every other day... still starved to death.... lasted eight or nine months... won't do it again. do your homework then forget about it... there are millions of starfish in the ocean, and for some reason, very few make it passed a year in home aquariums..... and when they die, it's usually on your favourite coral head, you know , the expensive one you've so proudly maintained and grown up to be a show piece in your tank.
but don't listen to just me.... i bet there'll be a few others telling you the same thing.... if you do happen to give it a try, i got $20 that says you'll be joining the club within a year.

 

[mike61289]

nope.....had a red linckia that fed on pellets and fresh, pieces of live rock and seafood, almost every other day... still starved to death.... lasted eight or nine months... won't do it again. do your homework then forget about it... there are millions of starfish in the ocean, and for some reason, very few make it passed a year in home aquariums..... and when they die, it's usually on your favourite coral head, you know , the expensive one you've so proudly maintained and grown up to be a show piece in your tank.
but don't listen to just me.... i bet there'll be a few others telling you the same thing.... if you do happen to give it a try, i got $20 that says you'll be joining the club within a year.

Thanks for the vote of confidence

Back to the purple linkia: does anybody have any experience with that species?

 

[jason2459]

KP aquatics common starfish. I bought two in 2015 and still doing good afaik.

Finally found a reef safe and hardy starfish thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2460978

Posted just a couple days ago in my journal thread

KP Aquatics Common Starfish still going strong. Got two of them October 2015

 

[mike61289]

What's their latin name?

 

[jason2459]

What's their latin name?

You can check them out here

http://www.kpaquatics.com/product/common-starfish/

 

[mike61289]

Thanks!

 

[Fishkeeper44]

If you wanted to you could keep a blue linckia. I think the key to keeping them is asterina starfish (a healthy population of them). I currently have a blue linckia in a 75 gallon reef that has been thriving for around 10 months. They eat the asterina starfish.

 

[Fishkeeper44]

Sea Star Recommendations

I will post a picture

 

[Fishkeeper44]

Here is a picture of mine about 4 months ago...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mike61289]

I love the blue linkia and kept one for about 3 years. I would love to keep it again, but I'm so intrigued to keep the purple linkia (linkia teres).

I'm going to keep researching before making any purchases, but I'm really leaning towards the purple linkia. I want to keep a species I have never kept before.

 

[mike61289]

So... things changed! I was coral shopping today and came across a beautiful colour morph of a marble star. The body is a vibrant orange and the scutes on it are a lavender/purple colour! I haven't been able to take a good pic yet because it's been attached to the front glass, but when I do get a good pic, I'll post it!

 

[mike61289]

So this star isn't the most active of stars. It basically hangs around at the surface of the water with one leg out. I guess it's catching food that way. I moved it on to the sand yesterday so that I can do a water change. I fed it a little bit after while it was still on the sand, but it didn't seem to go for the food. It just went right back up to the top of the front pane of the aquarium with one leg extended.

 

[mike61289]

The star has finally moved down into the rocks and seems to be more comfortable. Here's a pic I took last night.