Basket Star

[Kittenslim]

Following up on the basket star. It’s very active and climbs from gorgonian to gorgonian without touching the floor. It opens during the day intermittently, but most of the night. It shows feeding activity when phyto, coral gumbo, oyster feast, and cyclopods are fed. Not interested in mysis. Too early to say I’ve been successful, but the high level of activity and observable feeding activity have me cautiously optimistic.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

That is great! If it seems to be eating that is always a major step! Keeping your water "dirty" with food probably goes a long way with the star and the gorgonians!

 

[Kasrift]

Following up on the basket star. It’s very active and climbs from gorgonian to gorgonian without touching the floor. It opens during the day intermittently, but most of the night. It shows feeding activity when phyto, coral gumbo, oyster feast, and cyclopods are fed. Not interested in mysis. Too early to say I’ve been successful, but the high level of activity and observable feeding activity have me cautiously optimistic.

What in the world is that starfish!! Awesome and good luck!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

How long have you had it?

 

[Kittenslim]

How long have you had it?

I’ve only had it a month so I can’t claim success, but there’s so little info about them I wanted to share updates. Originally it was on a Montipora in a different tank, but shows a strong preference for gorgonians and no interest in the monti when given options.

I know they have dismal survival rates, so it might be helpful to consider offering them gorgonians to host. The guy who posted about having one for nine months on his Black Sea rod really helped me out with his post. I still believe they may feed on the gorgonian’s mucus after finding the quote below…

This was from a 2006 post about basket stars that contained links, but most were broken…
"are found entwined in the branches of black corals or gorgonians where they feed on the rich mucus of their host, in turn performing cleaning functions."

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I’ve only had it a month so I can’t claim success, but there’s so little info about them I wanted to share updates. Originally it was on a Montipora in a different tank, but shows a strong preference for gorgonians and no interest in the monti when given options.

I know they have dismal survival rates, so it might be helpful to consider offering them gorgonians to host. The guy who posted about having one for nine months on his Black Sea rod really helped me out with his post. I still believe they may feed on the gorgonian’s mucus after finding the quote below…

This was from a 2006 post about basket stars that contained links, but most were broken…
"are found entwined in the branches of black corals or gorgonians where they feed on the rich mucus of their host, in turn performing cleaning functions."

I recall a similar post a while back and I gave them links I found that might help with species identification since different species vary in diet. If I can find the post I'll give you the links as well. @ISpeakForTheSeas might be able to help further.

 

[rhitee93]

wow, that is a cool critter

 

[Kasrift]

Google search says they are one of the largest stars and can live up to 35 years, have arms a meter long, and weigh 11 lbs. Also says they are super deep water so need cool tanks. That thing is insane.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

If you can count the number of madreporites on the star's disk, that would help with an ID.

That said, basket stars (from the taxonomic family Gorgonocephalidae) have been shown to typically feed on both large and small plankton (including bacteria and possibly coral eggs), detritus,* and possibly some of the mucus produced by their host gorgonian as well (though they may be feeding on microbes or biofilm in the mucus rather than the mucus itself, or not feeding on it purposefully at all - or it may be case by case/species dependent; regardless, to my knowledge, this hasn't been very well studied yet).**

The size of the food needed depends in large part on the size of the star, but likely depends on other physical attributes the species as well. At least some of them need to be greater than or equal to 20mm in disk size before they can properly eat more "traditional" plankton foods like copepods.

*Sources:

Gut Microbial Composition and Diversity in Four Ophiuroid Species: Divergence Between Suspension Feeder and Scavenger and Their Symbiotic Microbes

Gut microbiota have important roles in the survival and adaptation of the host. Ophiuroids, as the worldwide dominant benthos, have ecological roles in benthic–pelagic coupling in the sea floor. However, little is known about the composition and ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Cold-Water Soft Corals (Cnidaria: Nephtheidae) as Habitat for Juvenile Basket Stars (Echinodermata: Gorgonocephalidae)

Nephtheidae soft corals are a common component of benthic ecosystems in the Northwest (NW) Atlantic and in the Arctic, but little is known about their functional roles. Here we investigated their role as habitat for basket stars (Ophiuroidea). By examining over 4500 soft coral colonies of Drifa...

www.frontiersin.org

**Sources:

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1087&context=sms_facpub

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/materials/DSC-foundation-species-fact-sheet.pdf

Gorgonians Are Foundation Species on Sponge-Dominated Mesophotic Coral Reefs in the Caribbean

Foundation species (FS) regulate ecological processes within communities often facilitating biodiversity and habitat complexity. Typically FS are dominant structure-forming taxa; but less dominant taxa having disproportionate ecological impacts to the community can also be FS. Mesophotic coral...

www.frontiersin.org

 

[Kittenslim]

This is very helpful, thank you! I just fed bbs and it’s curled up tightly. When it opens this evening, I’ll try to identify and count the madreporites. I culture and feed large amounts of phyto daily as well.

 

[DHill6]

I’ve only had it a month so I can’t claim success, but there’s so little info about them I wanted to share updates. Originally it was on a Montipora in a different tank, but shows a strong preference for gorgonians and no interest in the monti when given options.

I know they have dismal survival rates, so it might be helpful to consider offering them gorgonians to host. The guy who posted about having one for nine months on his Black Sea rod really helped me out with his post. I still believe they may feed on the gorgonian’s mucus after finding the quote below…

This was from a 2006 post about basket stars that contained links, but most were broken…
"are found entwined in the branches of black corals or gorgonians where they feed on the rich mucus of their host, in turn performing cleaning functions."

I’m the guy, actually girl that posted about the mini basket star on the Black Sea Rod. Unfortunately it is gone. It was doing alright until I did a ‘rip clean’ of sort to get rid of the GHA and whatever else was in there. I was careful to keep it submerged on the sea rod, everything went into a brute while I took out the algae with peroxide. Of course I rinsed more than once. At the same time I had to add another 5 g of new saltwater. I also added another 3 bottles of Tisbe pods within 5 days. May have been too clean after all this or it just wasn’t going to live long, who knows, but the algae problem is gone. Nothing else was affected. Good luck with yours and I’ll be following.

 

[Kittenslim]

I’m the guy, actually girl that posted about the mini basket star on the Black Sea Rod. Unfortunately it is gone. It was doing alright until I did a ‘rip clean’ of sort to get rid of the GHA and whatever else was in there. I was careful to keep it submerged on the sea rod, everything went into a brute while I took out the algae with peroxide. Of course I rinsed more than once. At the same time I had to add another 5 g of new saltwater. I also added another 3 bottles of Tisbe pods within 5 days. May have been too clean after all this or it just wasn’t going to live long, who knows, but the algae problem is gone. Nothing else was affected. Good luck with yours and I’ll be following.

Awww, sorry to hear about your basket star. Your post was really helpful.

 

[DHill6]

Thanks. I was sorry to see it go. You never know what’s in a sea rod.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Many species commonly prefer to host gorgonians I believe since they can grasp on tightly and also for the camouflage it provides. As @ISpeakForTheSeas mentioned, diet really seems to depend on the species. Perhaps marine snow maybe Julian Sprungs brand would be a good option to dose.

 

[Kittenslim]

Basket Star is still showing feeding activity and may have grown a little. Knowing what I do now, I wouldn’t get another one. Initially I thought it was a species that stays small, but I don’t believe it is.

 

[Kittenslim]

Basketstar update… the basket star continues to grow and is moving around quite a bit. I never see him switch gorgonians, he’ll just show up on a different one. He opens up after lights out to feed, but yesterday he was half open as I was feeding a small hunk of shrimp to a nearby goniopora. The basket star reached out and a tug of war ensued. After the basket star lost, I offered a small piece of shrimp as consolation prize and it was readily accepted. I didn’t know they could take such large pieces so wanted to update.

 

[DHill6]

I’m glad it’s still alive. Following.

 

[Kittenslim]

I’m glad it’s still alive. Following.

Me too! It’s hard to get a picture with the lights off, but that’s when it opens to feed.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I'm so happy to hear that it's still alive, and not only alive but thriving! I have wanted a basket star since I started keeping aquariums, but the only places I've seen them for sale have been scientific supply houses.
Knowing that they're related to brittle and serpent stars, I'm not surprised it could swallow larger chunks of food! I have seen brittles eat chunks of meat the size of their oral disc before!
Such a unique animal, thank you for updating us.

 

[DHill6]

Very interesting to watch, the mini basket star I had in the Black Sea Rod waved it’s arms when lights out.