what type of starfish is this?

[RioReefr]

See attached photo:

Just curious what type of starfish this is ? Could it be trained to eat some other food than just the microfauna ? I had a sand-sifting starfish that lasted 6 months, disappeared into the sand and perished. I would never another get sand-sifter. It was cool for a few months and just started getting smaller and smaller.

 

[billdogg]

I'm not sure, but someone will chime in.

The problem with many stars is feeding. Just what do they eat? It's often difficult or impossible to tell, or they (like the sand sifters) are so destructive to the microfauna that they quickly eat all available food and then starve over a period of weeks or months.

IMHO, the only stars that are truly beneficial in a reef tank are mini brittle and most of the serpent/brittle family, with the exception of the Green Brittle and maybe the Caribbean Red serpent (The GBS is an active hunter of sleeping fish, the CRS gets very large and possibly predatory as well)

They other stars that are, at least IMHO, harmless are the asterinas. Although there are those who are certain they have damaged/eaten corals, and they can reproduce to plague proportions (limit the food source and you'll limit the population) I have yet to have an issue with them in 30 years.

There are quite a few reefers who have kept some others, mostly Linkia sp. I have never had long term success with them, but I tend to define "long term" as 5-10 years.

hth

 

[mcgyvr]

Rio,
Your tank is way too small for any starfish..
If you can't keep a sand sifter alive you have zero chances of any others surviving..

 

[Tyler438]

I'm not sure, but someone will chime in.

The problem with many stars is feeding. Just what do they eat? It's often difficult or impossible to tell, or they (like the sand sifters) are so destructive to the microfauna that they quickly eat all available food and then starve over a period of weeks or months.

IMHO, the only stars that are truly beneficial in a reef tank are mini brittle and most of the serpent/brittle family, with the exception of the Green Brittle and maybe the Caribbean Red serpent (The GBS is an active hunter of sleeping fish, the CRS gets very large and possibly predatory as well)

They other stars that are, at least IMHO, harmless are the asterinas. Although there are those who are certain they have damaged/eaten corals, and they can reproduce to plague proportions (limit the food source and you'll limit the population) I have yet to have an issue with them in 30 years.

There are quite a few reefers who have kept some others, mostly Linkia sp. I have never had long term success with them, but I tend to define "long term" as 5-10 years.

hth

My chocolate chip starfish eats my turbo snails, Other than that I havent had any issues with him.

 

[RioReefr]

Rio,
Your tank is way too small for any starfish..
If you can't keep a sand sifter alive you have zero chances of any others surviving..

Ok, I can appreciate that response. Thank you for the honest response.

I was fairly naive when the LFS sold to me " the sand-sifter starfish feeds off detritus". I don't know why they make that pitch. It was not until I was reading more posts (on this forum) that they feed off of microfauna and will slowly starve to death when they exhaust their food source. In my case, that was exactly what happened. Purchased back in February, the star was really active for about 3 months. Then one of its arms started to get smaller. At around the the 5th month, the 2nd arms started doing the same. It became less active. A few weeks back, it disappeared into the sand (never to be seen again). I can only assume the CUC ate the remains because I siphoned the sand this past weekend and there was no signs of it.