Any SEA STARgazers out there?

[livinlifeinBKK]

On the subject of Blue Linckia longevity, there used to be an undocumented tale about one's handling them with their hands causing their demise. It was said that they couldn't recover after coming in contact with human skin oils. You can spot an old timer collecting one in a shop. You tun the bag inside out, put it over your hand, and pick it up star along with the water you're going to pack it in. Twenty-odd years ago there was only one store in NJ where I would buy one and have it survive a few years. Reef Encounter knew what they were doing.

That may or may not be true (if there's no actual research done I'd be very skeptical to believe it personally since they already have such a low survival rate) but it doesn't explain why some disintegrate within a week before being bought from a store or why some live for months in a tank and then die without a significant shift in parameters.

 

[radiata]

Here's another Blue Linckia tale. I knew a guy, Frank S., thirty-something years back who ran a part-time marine specimen importing business out of his basement. He'd meet incoming shipments on Sunday nights, acclimate them, and fax out his availability lists to local pet shops. Frank had a Blue Linckia in a tank near a basement window. An upper corner of the tank got some direct sunlight every morning. As you'd expect, the corner of the tank grew a lot of hair algae. The Linckia never left the algae. Maybe it ate the algae, or maybe it ate the pods that collected in the algae. Frank kept the Linckia alive in that tank for seven years before he moved to Florida.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Here a tale that's become a rather widespread belief passed around regarding all starfish...if exposed to air for a brief time period the star will die. I've heard this many times, however it's completely untrue. Without a doubt there have been reefers that accidentally exposed their starfish to air and it later died but the reason it died wasn't related to being exposed to air. Most likely they heard this tale, believed it and attributed the stars death to being exposed to air. It's completely untrue though.

 

[Aspect]

Here a tale that's become a rather widespread belief passed around regarding all starfish...if exposed to air for a brief time period the star will die. I've heard this many times, however it's completely untrue. Without a doubt there have been reefers that accidentally exposed their starfish to air and it later died but the reason it died wasn't related to being exposed to air. Most likely they heard this tale, believed it and attributed the stars death to being exposed to air. It's completely untrue though.

Probably if it dries out is what will kill the starfish. Every time I've acclimated a starfish they are exposed to air during the transfer, yet still wet.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Y

Probably if it dries out is what will kill the starfish. Every time I've acclimated a starfish they are exposed to air during the transfer, yet still wet.

Yes, if it dries out I'd definitely expect it to be dead already. I've heard multiple people claim that any exposure to air will lead to death. That's what I was pointing out as false. Your experience supports the fact that it's not true.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

After years of reefkeeping among other unrelated experiences I've become very skeptical of personal anecdotes unless a large number of people have had a very similar experience... especially if there's actual research that contradicts the personal anecdote. For example, when reefers didn't know how to maintain Stony corals decades ago if there were 1,000 people who observed salinity swings having a negative impact on health of the corals and no research done at that time that directly contradicted this belief I would believe it. However, if one or two people make the claim that they've never noticed any decline in health or growth with extremely high phosphate levels, I would be highly skeptical that the reason for a lack in health decline has to do with the phosphate levels they measured themselves with hobbyist test kits. Even if the phosphate levels were 100% accurate I'd be very hesitant to believe that extremely high phosphate levels have no effect on coral health or growth. (This is just an example I came up with just now to illustrate a point. It's not a perfect example but I think it gets the point across.)