Starfish advice

[Ben Butler]

Hello,

I wanted to see if I could get some pointers/advice on care and selection of a starfish for my Red Sea reefer 170 reef tank?

 

[Coralreefer1]

Stay away from Linkia and Fromia as they are too difficult to keep. Avoid any Star that has a knobby appearance. That is a tell tale red flag that they are not reef safe. Don’t get a Green Brittle Star(Ophiarachna Incrassata), they get rather large and will eat smaller fish. Most Serpent and Brittle Sea Stars are ideal in helping to keep detritus and uneaten food in the benthic areas and between your rocks clean. They are hardy as well and don’t bother other livestock .

 

[Kristophf]

If you have a sandbed a sand sifting star are handy. Ive had mine for a while and its constantly moving the sandbed around for me looking for food

 

[Ben Butler]

Are they difficult to care for? The lfs got me concerned that they do not live long and can be difficult but I really like them so I am really wanting to get advice

 

[DSC reef]

I wouldn't add a sand sifting starfish, they really need an established tank as they eat the fauna in the sand bed.

 

[redfishbluefish]

The largest mistake I see with starfish is that people don't feed them.....and they end up starving, typically losing parts of their arms/body. Most starfish are meat eaters. I'd recommend picking up a bunch of clams and freezing them. When ready to feed, open one up and cut off a piece, returning the rest to the freezer. Using forceps, put the piece close to the star. They can "smell" the food, and should move to take it.

 

[Kristophf]

Had mine for 8 months now, i dont do anything special. I also have a sifting goby so i just make sure there is some food left on the bed when i feed. I read they were hard to keep right after my lfs sold it to me so i didnt expect it to live this long tbh, but if you make sure they have food there wont be a problem

 

[Kristophf]

I do have a sump with a chaeto fuge, and constant pod growth in there so that might also contribute to his diet. I do see him climbing the glass sometimes which is cool, he get to the top and falls down everytime

 

[DSC reef]

We've kept linkia and sand sifting starfish. An established tank is absolutely necessary. 8 months is not long to keep a starfish. We kept our linkia for a couple years and I still don't consider that successful and would never buy another one. After a year or more the sand sifting star would die under the sand bed. Without knowing if the OP's tank was just setup, recommending starfish at this point is not a good idea. To the OP, I'd also heed @Coralreefer1 advice.

 

[Kristophf]

Fair call, yea ive read up alot or stories like that. Wish my lfs had warned me!

 

[DSC reef]

That's would be good if your fish store warned you. I absolutely love starfish so it's a bummer. The blue linkia was our favorite. This was the one we had a couple years on a squamosa clam

 

[DSC reef]

Fair call, yea ive read up alot or stories like that. Wish my lfs had warned me!

I thinking having a refugium will help. My advice is if you don't see the starfish out for a couple days then search the sand bed for him. I noticed sand sifters are pretty active starfish.

 

[Kristophf]

I thinking having a refugium will help. My advice is if you don't see the starfish out for a couple days then search the sand bed for him. I noticed sand sifters are pretty active starfish.

Yea thanks, he does go underground for a few days sometimes without a trace and my bed is quite deep. But if ill keep in mind if hes gone longer than that [emoji111]

 

[Curtisgabrielii]

I just got a blood red serpent star any advice what to feed him and how often? Read they will eat hermit crabs and such if the don't get fed enough

 

[norfolkgarden]

I just got a blood red serpent star any advice what to feed him and how often? Read they will eat hermit crabs and such if the don't get fed enough

How big is the central disk?

Ours is about 3/4".

Just random extra frozen food is all ours gets.
2 years.