Favorite Starfish?

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hey everyone!
What’s your favorite kind of starfish?

My favorite is the cushion starfish (Culcita novaeguineae), but it’s not reef safe…
So, my favorite reef safe starfish are asterinas.

(Honorable mention for the common sunstar - Crossaster papposus - which eats other starfish and sea cucumbers.)

 

[Enkopaaisen]

Basket wavier star fish. Fun guys to watch, only problem is they move to much kind of bothering corals, had move them into overflow

 

[Steve and his Animals]

Hey everyone!
What’s your favorite kind of starfish?

My favorite is the cushion starfish (Culcita novaeguineae), but it’s not reef safe…
So, my favorite reef safe starfish are asterinas.

(Honorable mention for the common sunstar - Crossaster papposus - which eats other starfish and sea cucumbers.)

I feel like calling Asterinas reef safe is being optimistic; most people treat them as pests specifically because they can and often eat coral.

I've always like Fromia species the most; they are reef safe, easier to keep than Linckias, and smaller growing than Linckias.

This was my cushion star that I had while while I lived in Hawaii. I used to feed him by placing him on top of clams on the half shell. That didn't stop him from eating 2 or 3 urchins.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I feel like calling Asterinas reef safe is being optimistic; most people treat them as pests specifically because they can and often eat coral.

I've always like Fromia species the most; they are reef safe, easier to keep than Linckias, and smaller growing than Linckias.

This was my cushion star that I had while while I lived in Hawaii. I used to feed him by placing him on top of clams on the half shell. That didn't stop him from eating 2 or 3 urchins.

That’s fair with asterinas. Based on what I’ve read here on the forums about them, I’d assume it’s either some species are safe and some aren’t, or that when there are enough asterinas and not enough food they turn to corals. Either way, I like them.

Beautiful colors on that cushion star!

 

[Steve and his Animals]

That’s fair with asterinas. Based on what I’ve read here on the forums about them, I’d assume it’s either some species are safe and some aren’t, or that when there are enough asterinas and not enough food they turn to corals. Either way, I like them.

Beautiful colors on that cushion star!

I agree with that assumption; if you let them get out of hand, they'll get out of hand.

The Hawaiian cushion stars were always prettier from what I've seen. Coral Fish Hawaii on Oahu was the store I went to regularly, and when they had them I saw the red (which I bought), purples, blues, greens, etc.

 

[A Young Reefer]

A double starfish, one of the best inverts I have ever owned. Unfortunately it didn’t survive for long and never saw one again for sale.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Hey everyone!
What’s your favorite kind of starfish?

My favorite is the cushion starfish (Culcita novaeguineae), but it’s not reef safe…
So, my favorite reef safe starfish are asterinas.

(Honorable mention for the common sunstar - Crossaster papposus - which eats other starfish and sea cucumbers.)

I love my Fromia indica starfish! He's generally pretty active and I love watching him roam around!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

A double starfish, one of the best inverts I have ever owned. Unfortunately it didn’t survive for long and never saw one again for sale.

Ive seen them I think!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

A double starfish, one of the best inverts I have ever owned. Unfortunately it didn’t survive for long and never saw one again for sale.

They used to have a bunch at a shop I went to!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

@ISpeakForTheSeas did I show you the bright orange ones?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas did I show you the bright orange ones?

I saw them in one of your threads, yeah - great, vibrant color!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I saw them in one of your threads, yeah - great, vibrant color!

They've also got brightorange biscuit starstoo

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

That didn't stop him from eating 2 or 3 urchins.

I know it's been a while since this thread, but I thought about this today and was wondering, what kind of urchins did it eat?

Edit: To add a disclaimer here, this thread is not meant to encourage the keeping of starfish at this point, as they generally don't do well in captivity - it's more just to learn a bit and enjoy these cool animals.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

I know it's been a while since this thread, but I thought about this today and was wondering, what kind of urchins did it eat?

Edit: To add a disclaimer here, this thread is not meant to encourage the keeping of starfish at this point, as they generally don't do well in captivity - it's more just to learn a bit and enjoy these cool animals.

When I was in Hawaii I collected for my aquarium myself, so I would grab urchins I saw that looked cool once in a while to see how they'd do. I tried a couple of the Hawaiian red slate pencil urchins (which didn't last long in captivity, as they notoriously didn't) and a couple small rock borers. He ate both types no problem. It would take him a couple days of sitting on the urchin in the same spot to finish digesting them.

 

[RockBox13]

Well, since Culcita is taken, though mine isn’t as fantastic as that stunning red one of @Steve and his Animals which I can’t get over. Wow! That’s a great one. Mine was fun to see dissolving Xenia on a rock. There’s usually someone who it got away from and wants to get rid of it. The Culcita could clean off a rock and someone could use it again without any issues. The Navy Blue Linckia was just too sweet to not be my favorite and reef safe Red Knobbies don’t get much attention. I’m forgetting scientific name of this one right now. There is a Red Knobby Fromia too or I believe it’s a Fromia. Gotta check on that one for proper name again too.

 

[Waters]

Basket starfish

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

reef safe Red Knobbies don’t get much attention

Interesting that these (the pic seems to be Protoreaster linckii) have been reef-safe for you - to my understanding, they're known to eat a bunch of different inverts including soft corals.

Basket starfish

Basket Stars are super cool!

 

[ReeferHD]

my favorites have gotta be

Culcita schmideliana. Goniaster tessellatus. & linckia laevigata.​

each one so unique and so fascinating, i'm looking to get them for my tanks in the future, except for linckia, they don't seem to have a definitive diet, maybe bacterial films, but still you'd need a big tank to supply enough food for them

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Those are cool stars - for the Culcita stars, I've been toying with the idea of setting up a tank in the future with weedy corals that they're known to eat (like green Pocillopora) and keeping them with a few other not-reef-safe/RSWC species that would appreciate those corals too. Making sure the corals keep up with the pace of consumption would be tough though.

except for linckia, they don't seem to have a definitive diet, maybe bacterial films, but still you'd need a big tank to supply enough food for them

Yeah, Linckias (and others like Fromias) are thought with good reason to eat biofilms in the wild, and that's just not something we can purposefully replicate/replace at this point:

Biofilms are typically a mix of bacteria, cyanobacteria, diatoms, microalgae, fungi, etc.; they can vary drastically in makeup dependent on a number of different factors (and figuring out what is in them requires lab-grade equipment). As mentioned, we're not sure what in the biofilm is important for starfish health. Also, we're not sure what biofilm composition is preferred by the stars (and it almost certainly will vary from species to species).

 

[ReeferHD]

Those are cool stars - for the Culcita stars, I've been toying with the idea of setting up a tank in the future with weedy corals that they're known to eat (like green Pocillopora) and keeping them with a few other not-reef-safe/RSWC species that would appreciate those corals too. Making sure the corals keep up with the pace of consumption would be tough though.

Yeah, Linckias (and others like Fromias) are thought with good reason to eat biofilms in the wild, and that's just not something we can purposefully replicate/replace at this point:

I have a 20 gallon with some macroalgae and Gulf Liverock in it, the only animal in there at the moment is a giant green brittle star that someone donated to my LFS, I'm good friends with the owner and they know i like inverts, they didn't have a place to put it so they just gave it to me, i was thinking of putting a Culcita star in there along with it.