Blue Linkia star fish

[macDRE]

I wanna get a blue linkia starfish.I heard there very hard to keep then i hear there easy.What is it?My tank has at least 75 pounds of LR in a 55 gallon tank.And my tank has been up for a year and a couple of months now.

[Letmegrow]

They simply starve to death.
That is only if they make it through acclimation.

[Monkeyfish]

They are very difficult to acclimate (should drip for several hours until water in container the same salinity and pH as the water in the tank). I've been told that these starfish should NOT be touched as the oils on our hands/skin have a negative effect (poisonous/acidic?).

No one knows what they eat. In a large tank (180g or bigger) with a lot of live rock and pristine water they might survive. Most die within a year from malnutrition/starvation if they survive the acclimation process.

[swiseman]

I just purchased one from a fellow hobbiest that is moving. He has had it in his 60 gal tank for 2 years and it has been in my tank now for a little over a month. I thought they fed on photoplankton on the glass and rocks. I hope it does a little better than that. Like most things in the hobby, I am sure that the handling during shipping and acclimation procedures play a major role in the poor track records with these animals. I have seen several desintegrate in the tanks of LFS shortly after arrival which is why I wanted to get one that had been in tank for a long while.

[AJ69]

Mine has been with us for almost 2 yrs,there's weeks that you wouldn't see it and then next morning you can find her "cruising in the glass"

[d9sccr]

I recently purchased a blue linkia. It seems to be doing well. It moves around the tank quite a bit, but I have not been able to get it to eat. Most of the time it hangs out around the intake of my protein skimmer. There are tiny feather dusters growing on the glass here and I think that it may be eating them, but the place where he is eating is not where the feather dusters are most abundant. I have tried to place shrimp and a mussel in front of him, but it did not work. I also placed him on a mussel and a piece of shrimp, but once again no dice. I had read that these are two common ways to feed the blue linkia. Any feeding tips would be greatly appreciated.

[JENnKerry]

They also cannot be exposed to air.
Since the blue's rarely survive in captivity, why not try an orange (although not a true linkia)? They're a lot easier and very attractive.

[Sk8r]

I've heard that they eat film algae---or that it's suspected they do: no one appears to know. If so, it might like the skimmer.