Which star is safe?

[405ndn]

I would like to get a star for my tank but I've been told that they are not safe because
they will munch on corals. Is this true? Are there any that are totally reef safe?
If so, are they fairly easy to take care of?

 

[dalston]

Linckia and Fromia are both reef safe, long term survival rate is very poor however. I have had most success with the sand sifting star, fairly easy to keep providing you have a well established (not to mention large) sandbed.

 

[Eric the half-bee]

Certain serpent stars are safe as well...

 

[Dave Harms]

Just stay away from green serpent stars as they eat fish.

I like the various brown serpent stars like this one I used to have:

This one was a pig, he would take chunks of raw shrimp from my hand. He is puffed up in this picture as he has just eaten.

 

[405ndn]

I've seen some red stars at my LFS. They had it labeled as red
but I'm not sure if thatsthe official name. Anyone know any info regarding these?
I would like to have one that has the classic star shape but is also safe.

 

[dalston]

'Red' is very vauge. There are many red stars, some reef safe, some not. I have seen stars in my LFS labelled 'red knobbly stars' these are meat eaters and are not reef safe. Take a look at some on line vendors and see if you can get an ID on it.

 

[Ken_wied]

I have a green serpent star in my tank. I feed him 1x a week with a fairly large piece of shrimp and he maintains a "No Fish" diet so far. Ive had him over a year.

 

[tdfd]

I read somewhere that a good guideline to follow with stars, is the smoother they are the safer they are. The ones with big lumps like the chocolate chip are not reef friendly. I am not totally sure about this theory and can't remember which book i got that from. The best bet would be to researche each species thoroughly.

 

[jarrod13]

I have a marbled star and a Linckia star and neither of them have ever bothered coral or anything else. My marble has taken a beating from a powerhead multiple times but is still kicking, moves just as fast as it did before, tough little star!
Anyways I love both of them, and if they do die I for sure am going to replace them, their cheap and beautiful

 

[DawgOnIt]

I have an Echinaster spinulosus (brown/orange spiny sea star). Really neat star. His type love to be as close to the light as possible so he's always ontop of rocks n stuff. Great fun when I first got him. He ate dead fish chunks for the first week or so. Now he only wants to eat the snails in my tank! I cannot find a way to coax him back onto dead food. He's a couple days away from a ride back out to the turtle grass beds I found him in.

I might try one more, very pretty star, but I get tired of stocking the tank with snails just for my resident snail disposal.

My banded brittle star though is way cool. Fast and happy sifting sand or eating my handouts.

Good luck.