What kind of starfish are reef safe?

dc_909

In Memoriam
I am looking for a starfish for my reef. What kind of stars don't get too large, are colorful, don't eat fish/coral and are easy to care for?
 
What is the best way to acclimate?

What linkas are good/hardy? Or are all of them OK?

Do you have to feed or do they scavenge?
 
Linkias will slowly starve to death because nobody is really sure what they eat. The hardiest star is the chocolate chip, but they are not reef safe.
 
linkia seastar...


Feeding: Feed small bits of clam meat placed under the star. Keep with live rock and live sand for grazing on algae and microorganisms.

Care: Reef safe. May be harmful to some invertebrates, such as sponges. In an aquarium setting it prefers a well-lighted sandy or coral rubble substrate, with many rocky hiding places. The Blue Linckia Sea Star is very intolerant of sudden changes in oxygen levels, salinity and pH of the water, and cannot tolerate copper-based medications.
 
they barley ever come out but i'd go with a sandsifting star... you dont have to do anything to keep them alive exept have sand...

but i wouldn't go crazy either... some people on here say they eat good stuff out of your sand... but that's like anything if you have to little room for them, one for a 55 gallon tank with 4 or more inches of sand i don't think is bad...
 
Bad idea! Sand sifting stars will wipe out a deep sand bed in a matter of weeks or at most months. They do not eat detritus only live things so your pods and worms are fair game. If you want a desert wasteland go for it but I know from experience its not a good idea, it took 6 months of reseeding and countless bottles of Oceanpods to finally get it back.
 
What can you do to keep a DSB clean? My LFS said one sand sifting star in my 72g will keep it clean, sifted and not eat faster than they can multiply.

Is there a "care and feeding of a DSB" thread somewhere? I like the idea of the additional bio-diversity, but I keep getting conflicting info, even from RC members.
 
nathan_unsane, have you ever kept a sand-sifting star alive for more than a year? If so, what size tank do you have?
 
I had a couple sand-sifting stars for 3 years. They are workhorses, keeping your sandbed emmaculate, but they do deplete everything in the sand.
 
I have had a sand sifting star for about a year and a half. and he still seems to be doing well in my 75 gallon tank. I would agree that I do not have anywhere near as many pods as my friends tanks though. Not sure if that is a bad thing or not. I have tried a blue linkia but it died in about 2 weeks. It acclimated well, I thought, but one day it looked like a pile of melted blue candle wax.

For keping your sand turned over, try some cerith snails. They bury themselves during the day and come out to eat algae off the glass and rocks at night. Also, make sure you have a lot of flow in the tank - it seems to help keep the sand cleaner too.
 
i have a sand sifting star and a brittle star. i dont see either on them very often but the sand sifter keeps my sand clean and when you do see the brittle he looks pretty cool. mostly comes out at night.
 
my sand sifter is about 6 months old...

and i don't see capods much... but i do see the clowns darting at the rocks often and swimming back the the anemone with a couple big ones...

and i also see, big things that look like a capod or amphoid floating on the surface of the water every now and again...

who need capods unless you have a dragonet anyway?
 
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