What's a good, reef safe, starfish?

[SeaCucumberFan]

I'm looking for a good starfish to go in my 25 gallon tank that won't eat any corals. None of my fish will pick on it. Will linckia, sand sifting, and fromia starfish be ok? (I'll only add one of these, not all of them)

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

No to all of those. The sand star will devour all the minrofauna in the sand bed then slowly starve to death. The other two are very difficult to keep. A brittle star or serpent star would be fine. Just steer clear of the green brittle star, they are known fish eaters.

 

[johnike]

No to all of those. The sand star will devour all the minrofauna in the sand bed then slowly starve to death. The other two are very difficult to keep. A brittle star or serpent star would be fine. Just steer clear of the green brittle star, they are known fish eaters.

This.

 

[lifeoffaith]

I've come to the place where I will never buy another starfish, at least until I have a very well established, very large tank.

I've had the Linkia, didn't last long. Looked fine until it went missing for a couple days and I found it dead inside the rocks.

I've had Fromia. This one (surprisingly) lasted over a year and then slowly started falling apart.

I also had a brittle star. This one I'd suggest. They will not do well though if you get lazy, even for a short time, and they must be fed meaty foods. He cleaned out my flame scallop when he hadn't been fed for a while (I thought he was getting enough of the frozen food I'd shoot his way). I'm not sure if the flame died first or if he killed it because he was hungry. Just don't get the green brittle, they get huge (I've heard tales of one that was over 2 ft across) and they will eat your fish.

I have not kept a sand sifting, but the advice you've been given is good from what I've heard.

Brittles or Serpents are awesome! They are different from the typical starfish, but there are a bunch of different ones. Check them out! If they lose legs, they will also grow back typically.

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

But my LFS doesn't have brittle stars (noooooooooo)

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I've got literally HUNDREDS of small brittle stars in my tank. How many do you want?

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

How will you ship them to me though? I can wait to get a hitchhiker

 

[Dkuhlmann]

LMAO, yeah shipping might be a problem to Indonesia. I didn't pay attention to your location when I posted. OOPS.

You shouldn't have a problem getting some of the small ones. They live in most all LR. You may already have some and don't realize it. Look for legs coming out of your LR when you feed the tank, that is usually them.

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

I saw one at the LFS once, but it was so small that when I told them I want it they said "What? We don't see anything". It was hiding behind a weird clump of algae. I'm planning to get some macroalgae and corals so I hope there will be one in one of those things. I got my cowrie this way, it was under a sea squirt I bought.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Just ask them when you go to get the algae and corals. Usually when I pick up a frag from the sandbed I have one or two attached to the frag plug

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

Just ask them when you go to get the algae and corals.

Ask them what? I don't know brittle star in Indonesian

 

[Dkuhlmann]

If they'll give you some. They look like this

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

I know what they look like... I mean what should I ask them? They won't understand me. Sometimes they don't realize what they have lol

 

[johnike]

Ask them what? I don't know brittle star in Indonesian

starfish rapuh

:wave:

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

LOL!!! Google translate in action!! Rapuh means fragile lololol

 

[johnike]

:thumbsup:

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

Try Yandex... arachnids translates to "jasadmu akan dihancurkan" which litteraly means "your corpse/remains will be destroyed"