Starfish Help

[NanoMan16]

So I just picked up this guy/gal. It’s an orange lyinca star. I just realized I don’t know enough about this type of star at the moment. Wife seen the pretty color and just had to put it in my tank. So any supplements or anything special I need to do?

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Presently, I have 2. A Red tile Sea star and a small Blue Linckia Sea star. From what I’ve heard. Typical tank lifespan are 6 months maybe more. Making sure they have a nice supply of film algae usually on rocks is a good thing. So far so good as I’m about 3 months in.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Unfortunately, Linckia starfish are biofilm eaters, so I wouldn't expect it to last too terribly long (the best advice I have at the moment that you could try to see if you can't have some success with these guys is the last quote below - no guarantees that it would help though):

Unfortunately, these guys are still thought to be biofilm eaters, so while they will likely scavenge around your tank, it'll probably die within 6-13 months. You can try supplementing it with things like clams and algae pellets (which supposedly N. cumingi will take on occasion), but it likely won't meet their nutritional needs.

People have tried supplemental feedings for starfish before, typically unsuccessfully. Linckias, Fromias, etc. are biofilm eating starfish, so we can't replicate their feed/meet their nutritional requirements at this point.

with starfish (specifically biofilm eating starfish), a year plus is basically a few months of them eating everything available for them in the tank followed by several months of them slowly starving to death (and they usually only last that long in large, mature tanks).

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).

Personally, to try and keep it alive, I'd suggest purposefully farming Aquilonastra starfish (Asterina stars), as I've heard of some people having anecdotal, moderately long term success with biofilm eating stars (like Linckia stars) while their Aquilonastra population lasts (the biofilm eating stars typically consume Aquilonastra stars, presumably for the biofilm either inside or outside of the Aquilonastra stars' bodies). I don't know if this would help, but it's the best suggestion I've got so far for biofilm eaters.