Sea star/star fish.

Scubareefman

Scubareefman

New member
I'm thinking of adding a starfish or two. Not going for linckia , I have never been able to keep them long term. What have you guys and gals had in the past that's been fun to watch, and not a PITA to keep? The red sea star look cool, and they seem to be reef safe.
 
Had 2 serpent stars for a little over 2 years now. Not really pretty to look out but they are fun to watch and my 2 yr old loves to take them out and hold them
 
btweymouth1s said:
Had 2 serpent stars for a little over 2 years now. Not really pretty to look out but they are fun to watch and my 2 yr old loves to take them out and hold them
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I have bristle stars that came in the live rock, they are cool to watch. I might look into picking up a serpent or two but I think they can eat your fish once they get to adulthood.
 
Ive gotta blue linkia Ive had for a few years in the 220 and a serpent in the 57 thats cool to watch when I feed. I had a marbled for a while but lost him when I switched tanks.
 
Here is a good article:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fromiastars.htm

Typically, the linckia species die in captivity, there are exceptions, but I'd stay away from them. The Fromia stars are the hardiest aside from serpents and brittles. Tank needs to be matured, probably at least 75 gallons with ample live rock and very stable prams. These guys need very careful acclimation in regards to salinity. They are also sensitive to nitrate.
 
Nanook said:
Here is a good article:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fromiastars.htm

Typically, the linckia species die in captivity, there are exceptions, but I'd stay away from them. The Fromia stars are the hardiest aside from serpents and brittles. Tank needs to be matured, probably at least 75 gallons with ample live rock and very stable prams. These guys need very careful acclimation in regards to salinity. They are also sensitive to nitrate.
Click to expand...

My new tank seems stable but I don't trust it to be honest. I just feel like its going to cycle. My chems all seem fine but the PH has been swinging a bit more than I like from morning till around dinner. I'm seeing a drop from 8.1/8.2 into the low 7's. I added some kalkwasser to my ato, and started dosing a little to bring it up mid day trying to get it to not drop so far. My ATO uses a pump that pretty much just dumps about a quarter gallon in when the float tells it to. I'm considering moving to a much slower pump and raising the amount of kalkwasser. Currently I am mixing 1 TBS to each gallon of RODI with a power-head to keep it moving all the time. I may work up to 2x or more over the next few weeks to see if that helps. I'm not worried about the swing at night, I just want to level out as many of the minor stability problems.

That being said, I may need to wait on a sea star. I'm already holding off on my surgeonfish stocking for about another month so I can get a really good stable flow pattern and macro system in the new rockwork. Flow is proving to be a challenge for me. finding a good flow that helps the LPS,SPS, inverts and nems plus no dead spots without being just way to much will take me some time. That Jeabo WP40 is awesome, I'm running it on pulse at 33% with my MP10 on lagoon at about 40% and most things seem happy.

So far my list is.
lemon peel angelfish
Purple tang
squaretail tang

Female Hoeven's wrasse (already have the male)
orange-back wrasse
sri lanka yellow wrasse (already have her)
six-line (already have her)

snowflake clown (got her) they have paired
blood orange clown (got him)

Maybe's
marble sea star
sea apple
some fire cucumbers

ordering
a good amount of Hawaiian opi glass shrimp to hide in the rocks to be hunted.
cop/amp's to help keep up with the wrasses
one of those big macro packs with the reds/blues/yellow macro to stuff in the rock pile and sump.

I'm going to go get some pie and think about this :D.

any advice or if you see a newbie mistake in the works just let me know what I need to reconsider :D
 
I am suprised someone would sell you a sea Apple. I would not trust that person again if they do. Nuke waiting to happen from what I have heard.
 
I ordered a common starfish(Echinaster sentus) from KP Aquatics nearly a year ago and it's been doing great. He's actually grown and is still very active. I think his colors were great. Purple with white dots on the top and bright orange on the backside.

20150325_135127_zpscl8qmxkt.jpg
 
Like Koodie, I would probably stay away from the apple. I think the rest of the list looks pretty good.

BTW, tell me about the glass shrimp? I've only heard of them in reference to freshwater. Are those a marine variety?
 
_E_ said:
Like Koodie, I would probably stay away from the apple. I think the rest of the list looks pretty good.

BTW, tell me about the glass shrimp? I've only heard of them in reference to freshwater. Are those a marine variety?
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I have a friend in Hawaii who can send me Hawaiian Opae Ula. I'll let you know when I make an order. They are a marine glass shrimp that lives in pockets of water around the islands. Most island pet stores sell them as live food for cheap. I was amazed that they go for $1 each online here on the mainland.
I would be getting the clear ones not the red "rare" ones. the clear are also called saltwater grass shrimp by some. They tend to live saltwater or brackish and do really well in marine aquariums. kind of like what this guys selling but the pacific ones not palae'. :d I may just order from him :D but not that many.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/800-1200-Li...683684?hash=item236237dd64:g:uwEAAMXQ3kNTfnIk
 
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Scubareefman said:
I was looking at a really cool feather star at Gateway last week. it was bright blood red and crazy fluffy. It got my attention walking by the DT.
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Don't do it! These require extremely specialized care and will slowly wither away one arm at a time. Very sad to watch.
 
Scubareefman said:
I have a friend in Hawaii who can send me Hawaiian Opae Ula. I'll let you know when I make an order. They are a marine glass shrimp that lives in pockets of water around the islands. Most island pet stores sell them as live food for cheap. I was amazed that they go for $1 each online here on the mainland.
I would be getting the clear ones not the red "rare" ones. the clear are also called saltwater grass shrimp by some. They tend to live saltwater or brackish and do really well in marine aquariums. kind of like what this guys selling but the pacific ones not palae'. :d I may just order from him :D but not that many.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/800-1200-Li...683684?hash=item236237dd64:g:uwEAAMXQ3kNTfnIk
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I keep freshwater shrimp. The ghost shrimp and the Opae Ula are two different shrimp. The Opae Ula are brackish water hobby shrimp as you mentioned from Hawaii. The ghost shrimp (or glass shrimp) are a freshwater water shrimp. Those would be more of the feeder shrimp. I am pretty sure they will not survive in a saltwater aquarium. The are usually kept in freshwater tanks. They are used as food for aquarium fish including saltwater but just as food as they will not survive the saltwater environment. Now if you can buy a bunch of live Mysis shrimp you may have a shot at those but I think even those are more brackish than full saltwater.

Here is one of my Red Rili shrimp (Neocardinia) female with eggs. Freshwater.
<a href="http://s292.photobucket.com/user/mpgrant77/media/97F5905E-3A56-4699-9FE4-346A0473E9E2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm37/mpgrant77/97F5905E-3A56-4699-9FE4-346A0473E9E2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 97F5905E-3A56-4699-9FE4-346A0473E9E2.jpg"/></a>
 
smoothdog said:
Don't do it! These require extremely specialized care and will slowly wither away one arm at a time. Very sad to watch.
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I think a success with those is considered anything over a couple months of life in captivity. Very few success stories on here with folks keeping those fancy starfish.

One I read said his survives because he feeds copious amounts of marine snow. He said he started with 10 capfuls a day and now maintains something like 6.

Not worth it for me.
 
mpgrant77 said:
I keep freshwater shrimp. The ghost shrimp and the Opae Ula are two different shrimp. The Opae Ula are brackish water hobby shrimp as you mentioned from Hawaii. The ghost shrimp (or glass shrimp) are a freshwater water shrimp. Those would be more of the feeder shrimp. I am pretty sure they will not survive in a saltwater aquarium. The are usually kept in freshwater tanks. They are used as food for aquarium fish including saltwater but just as food as they will not survive the saltwater environment. Now if you can buy a bunch of live Mysis shrimp you may have a shot at those but I think even those are more brackish than full saltwater.

Here is one of my Red Rili shrimp (Neocardinia) female with eggs. Freshwater.
<a href="http://s292.photobucket.com/user/mpgrant77/media/97F5905E-3A56-4699-9FE4-346A0473E9E2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm37/mpgrant77/97F5905E-3A56-4699-9FE4-346A0473E9E2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 97F5905E-3A56-4699-9FE4-346A0473E9E2.jpg"/></a>
Click to expand...

very cool indeed. :D
I have had marine tanks with normal clear opae (what Hawaiian pet stores sell as normal Opae) they live for long times, I think they have a span of 7 years in the wild (nowhere near that in captive). I have also done work with the Hawaiian U. S department of fish & wild life inspecting and helping monitor several of the red Opae holes on the south-eastern shores of Oahu. I'll post some photos later once I'm home of the cool underground tidal pools they like to breed in.
I also spent a lot of time those days counting sea turtle (lots of walking, very few nests) nests and monk seals and tossing blennies back into the sea as I walked from the little tiny tide pools, such a goofy fish.

I'm considering making my old 40 cube a freshwater planted tank. I have heard they can be harder then reef tanks, but wow are they cool to look at.
laters,
Tom
 
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