starfish anyone

[JN Reef]

Anyone here keeping starfish in their tanks?
what kind and what has your experience been, past and present?
JN

[john37]

i just have linkia (sp?) a blue one and it's doing great. been about 6 months

[JN Reef]

does the blue linkia spend most of its time on the glass walls, or does it hang around the LR and disturb the corals?

[raskal311]

I had a sandshifter in my tank for about a year before it died. It did a great job keeping the sand clean. I think it died because I started putting too much corals on the sand and it was not able to feed.

[saltyESQ]

all those linkias die.... well most likely shock from acclimation or if lucky enough they starve to death bc it is unknown what they eat.

and the only good sand sifting stars do for your tank is make live sand into dead sand bc they eat all the good critters

[JN Reef]

Bergamer, if you feel that way about the sand sifitng stars, then whay do you feel is the best sand sifter?

[FishyBiz]

I'm gonna tag along. I've always wanted a starfish but get a bad vibe from everyone about them.

[proraptor]

I have a bunch of small ones that came out of my live rock...I dont know what kind they are though

[AtlanticReef]

One of them might eat your corals..I got in this problem so I bought a harliquin shrimp to take care these start fish...

http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

Tony

[NicoleC]

I have thousands of asterinas. They don't eat my corals. I do have so many that I'm thinking a predator to keep their population in check might be nice, but then what do you do with the harlequin when it's decimated your tank of mini stars? Plus, I like my mini brittles and don't want them eaten.

[kewwlkat123]

I tried a blue linkia star fish and it died after about 2 weeks in the tank. I used the slow drip method to acclimate him for about 5 hours and still he didn't make it.

Are the orange linkia stars any hardier?

[saltyESQ]

for sand sifting I use nassirous snails and a stick to sift the sand on a weekly basis

[GinaSofia]

IMO the hardiest Linkia is the Multiflora.I think Dr. Macs has them occasionally.

[mrmashew]

I keep them for a couple of minutes in my reef. That is until my Harlequins get them.

[Iconoclast]

I have dozens of brittle stars. Don't know evactly how I got them, probably on a rock, but they are all over and seem to be fine. I also have what I was told was a brittle star in my 60, but now that I compare the two I don't know what it is. It's purple w/ no brittles, and I seem it every now and again.
IF I hadn't gotten them for free/cheap I never would have gotten a starfish. I never see it and it's not that cool now that I have one. But that's just me :P

Erin

[NicoleC]

Mini brittles are common hitchhikers. They are good cleanup crew, and reproduce well. They don't get any bigger than 1" or so in diameter.

The stars of questionable repute are asterinas, which are bulkier but smaller in diameter. The ones in the GARF link above are very representative of pretty much any asterina species.

Serpent star hitchhikers would be very rare -- and serpents are pretty effective predators so they aren't really safe around fish.