How to keep a starfish while on vacation

[Aronsaquarium]

Hey,
I hope all is well

I’m going on vacation for 3 weeks, my tank is pretty much a FOWLR tank with some snails and a starfish.
I’ve got everything on automation for the fish, but wondering what I should do with my starfish?
Since I need to feed it once a week by hand..

First question May be what sort of starfish is it..
I don’t know the name lol but I’ll post a picture here.

he’s a cool one and I don’t wanna lose it

 

[fishguy242]

hi, can you post pic under white light ?
kinda looks like a Protoreaster linckii ??

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

The best you can probably do is give it a good feeding before you leave and make sure to feed it well when you get back...most species can go for a while without being directly fed...just judging by how it looks, it appears to be a primarily carnivorous species that would feed on coral if you had any (I saw you mentioned it's a FOWLR tank)

 

[damsels are not mean]

feed it bigly

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hey,
I hope all is well

I’m going on vacation for 3 weeks, my tank is pretty much a FOWLR tank with some snails and a starfish.
I’ve got everything on automation for the fish, but wondering what I should do with my starfish?
Since I need to feed it once a week by hand..

First question May be what sort of starfish is it..
I don’t know the name lol but I’ll post a picture here.

he’s a cool one and I don’t wanna lose it

I have a sand sifting star, and I'm away from home 4 weeks out of 8.
I honestly don't even worry about it because it always manages to scavenge the food that is autofed to the fish.

 

[haitian_reefer]

Wow! 3 weeks? How big is your ATO?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Wow! 3 weeks? How big is your ATO?

I don't know about the OP, but my RODI reservoir is connected directly to the RODI filter which auto fills when the reservoir is down to 10%.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I believe it’s a red knobbed sea star (Protoreaster linckii) but a photo under white light because I can’t see what color it is would help. I highly recommend having someone come over at least once or twice starfish are sensitive and over feeding is not necessarily the answer and for other reasons including topping of the ATO. How big is your tank?

 

[doubleshot00]

Wow! 3 weeks? How big is your ATO?

My thought exactly. Like how the heck can you leave your system untouch for 3 weeks. Please post a pic when you get back. Would love to see if anything happens.

 

[haitian_reefer]

I don't know about the OP, but my RODI reservoir is connected directly to the RODI filter which auto fills when the reservoir is down to 10%.

What kind of redundancy do you have in place to prevent an accident?

 

[gbroadbridge]

What kind of redundancy do you have in place to prevent an accident?

After the electronics, level sensors and solenoid valves, there is a mechanical float valve (like in a toilet cistern) which will shut off water if the level rises above the sensors. The level never normally rises to there of course.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

Thank you so much for the reply’s first of all!
So it’s a Hard angel to take a photo from and the phone always makes it look way more blue than in real.
But it’s a purple starfish. I think this family comes in many variations.. and no 2 are the same.. but this should give you a better look.

i can’t have anyone come to feed it :/
I’m going away for 3 weeks and 2 days.

if it was a sand sifter I’d worry less, but I know it’ll eat coral if it had the choice. (I don’t have any)
So not sure if that means it’ll be able to scavenger for a few weeks on its own?

i have auto feeders with flakes and pellets for the fish..

man’s the tank is covered. Because I have jumpers, so I don’t loose much water.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

While I’m at it, is that too much food to give it?
Takes like 12-14 hours to eat that much

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

While I’m at it, is that too much food to give it?
Takes like 12-14 hours to eat that much

Once a week feedings are probably good ...I didn't see where you mentioned just how much you feed it during feeding time...

 

[Aronsaquarium]

I feed once a week, and pretty much what you see in that picture is what I give it..

it’s frozen Krill, a couple little pieces