Starfish - what should I know?

[StephM33]

Hello all,

We have a 96 gal tank with approximately a 3" sand bed, and (i'm guessing) 35-40 pounds of live rock. This setup has been functioning continously for 4+ years, but there was a crash about 9 mos ago where we lost all but a couple of damsels. After a significant break where the 2 damsels lived all alone, we have begun to restock the tank slowly over the last 4 months.

Currently we have a yellow tang, a foxface, a mandarin goby, 2 clowns, 2 damsels, a cleaner shrimp, and a 10" snowflake moray eel (who is AMAZING!!) We've had him only 2 weeks so far but he's very social and we love watching him.

Looking forward we'd like to consider adding one or more starfish, but I'm hoping someone here can give us a quick lesson on what we should know first. Unfortunately I've realized I can't trust my LFS to adequately inform us. (No one bothered to tell me what I needed to know about that cute little goby for instance!)

We don't know a lot about invertabrates, but we'd definitely like to add some variety to the tank in the future without always relying on fish. Alternatively, if someone has some links to a reliable information site where I can read for myself that would be great too. I can't seem to get a turn on the search engine here so I can't find much on my own.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Steph

[scrmbld33]

what type of starfish are you looking to get?

[StephM33]

Good question....going just on looks we like blue linkia, african red knob, pink marbled, or something else bright and colourful. Now, whether any of those are at all suitable we have no idea!

Steph

[scrmbld33]

well the linkia, in my expeirence are tough, ive never had one make past a few months, the other 2 ive never had but with all starfish they have to be drip acclimated and the water params in your tank have to stay constant as stars are very sensitive to changes, like temp,phos ph etc. i would say if your good at keeping your tank params in check, give one a try

you didnt mention corals but linkias and the fromia you mention are reef safe, if you want a easier star try a serpent or brittle, they seem to be bullet proof

try here for som quick info

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=528

[greenbean36191]

Knock the Linckia and Fromia off the list. You don't have enough LR to support them for more than a year or so. The knobbed star would be fine as long as you don't plan to keep corals and you keep your salinity and pH fairly stable. They need to be fed meaty food, which should occasionally include sponge. With any star it's a good idea to have the LFS hold it for a few weeks before you buy it. If it looks plump, has good color, and doesn't have any wounds or sores at the end of that period then it's probably ok to buy. Be sure to acclimate it over the course of several hours.

[StephM33]

Thanks to both of you for your help. I actually made a mistake with the live rock. I'm not sure what I was thinking but it's at least 60-70 pounds, perhaps more.

I appreciate the website referral Scrmbld33, and the advice to have the LFS hold the star for a couple of weeks, greenbean. I'm still not sure what we will decide on, the LiveAquaria site alone has a lot of good info. Too bad they don't deliver to Canada!

Thanks again!
Steph

[SuperNerd]

Won't snowflake eels eat inverts?

Most stars are difficult to keep longterm, like greenbean said. If you manage to acclimate them correctly there's still the problem of feeding them because the exact diets of many of the "pretty ones" are either unknown or hard for us to get in large enough quantities. Even if you have a lot of rock there is still the possibility that the growth on the rock is not something the star wants to eat.

If you aren't too picky about which starfish you get or just want a starfish that, in general, is easier to keep, you could always go for a brittlestar but some can get big and eat things.

Or, if you don't really care about size, there are always asterinas and mini brittle stars. They're small, hardy, and can reproduce. :D

[Navyblue]

Just in case you haven't seen this.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/echinode.htm

Do explore the links around, they contains many things that you want to know to keep a star alive.

Basically, you need to know what they need. Especially on food, stay away from those you don't know exactly what they eat (like the linkia), or they eat everything (like the chocolate chip star) which is only good for a fish only tank. Sand sifting stars will take prepared food and don't eat corals but they will turn your livesand bed dead by eating everything in it sans the sand.

Personally I like brittle and serpent stars as I find them more interesting than normal stars.

[MBuck]

FYI, Just so you know since you are in the stocking stage again...A puffer of any kind will try to eat your star, they cannot go together...I really wanted a puffer, and i have one in my 125g, but then I saw this huge orange linkia at a friends, and thought he was pretty cool too. Unfortunately, I can't have both, so i will keep my little bandit, and forgoe the star..