Starfish for reef tank

underwaterdan · Oct 30, 2015

Are there any star fish that are reef safe? I have a clean up crew and hope to eventually get a clam... Those would be the two things I would guess may not go well with seastars.

JedClampett · Oct 30, 2015

A serpent star is a great choice

melypr1985 · Oct 30, 2015

You can get a brittle star or serpant star. They come in different patterns and sometimes colors as wel. Just stay away from the Giant Green brittle stars

underwaterdan · Oct 30, 2015

I was looking for a little more traditional looking star....

JedClampett · Oct 30, 2015

There are other starfish but they are either hard to take care of or not reef safe

melypr1985 · Oct 30, 2015

Your talking about the blue or red ones right? Those are difficult to care for and most of the time just disintegrate after a few months. Some have managed to keep them for a year or so, but they eventually die. The rest arn't reef safe.

ReefMadScientist · Oct 30, 2015

Sand sifting star.

You can check out some fromia's but they tend to die unless you keep your glass always dirty.

JedClampett · Oct 30, 2015

melypr1985 said:
Your talking about the blue or red ones right? Those are difficult to care for and most of the time just disintegrate after a few months. Some have managed to keep them for a year or so, but they eventually die. The rest arn't reef safe.

Yea that's what I was thinking

cameronh · Oct 30, 2015

It's weird how they just......melt

melypr1985 · Oct 30, 2015

cameronh said:
It's weird how they just......melt

I've never seen them melt exactly. They tend to just start falling apart. It's sad and a little gross. Poor creatures.

JedClampett · Oct 30, 2015

I know this wasnt what you wanted to hear, but serpent stars are really cool to keep. I have one and he crawls around in my rock and you can see all his arms sticking out of different places. You can feed them shrimp too and they will wrap there arm around it and shove it into their mouth.

melypr1985 · Oct 30, 2015

I've seen some cool ones. My LFS had a black and white striped one a couple months ago.

cameronh · Oct 30, 2015

melypr1985 said:
I've never seen them melt exactly. They tend to just start falling apart. It's sad and a little gross. Poor creatures.

Well I'm referring to this one time at my LFS where I saw a blue star and his skin was drooping off of him. Yes it's sad I like stars alot. But not the nuisance stars....I toss those in my native tank.

JedClampett · Oct 30, 2015

Mine is bigger than my hand, but can fit in the smallest of spots. I've had him for about 3 months and is doing great

cameronh · Oct 30, 2015

I think brittle stars are cool

underwaterdan · Oct 30, 2015

I should Mention I have a cleaner shrimp too... http://www.aquariumcreationsonline.net/starfish.html
How about some of these? They have a lot listed as reef safe and everything on the internet is true

JedClampett · Oct 30, 2015

Most of those are really hard to take care of. But the basket stars are pretty easy and really cool

chimmike · Oct 30, 2015

I was under the impression that most stars weren't safe with shrimp

melypr1985 · Oct 30, 2015

chimmike said:
I was under the impression that most stars weren't safe with shrimp

What gave you that impression? I'm just curious if you have a link?

chimmike · Oct 30, 2015

I've been out of the hobby since 2011, but my understanding was most stars can be opportunistic feeders just like crabs. Even emerald crabs can go rogue (and I had those guys with shrimp with no problem)