Blue Linckia Dying

My 7 day old Blue Linckia seems to be dying already. Water parrms are damn near perfect and the thing seemed to be feeding on the rock slime just fine but now he is frozen in place and it looks like his innards are starting to bleed out. Yeah, yeah I know they are hard to keep but I thought my tank was special.

Anybody had one die? Innards bleeding equals death?

My red one died you can read the whole story on my blog (www.thefragglereef.com) in my signature. The blue one would have gotten WAAAY to big for your tank anyway.

I got a serpent starfish and he is doing great I think they are hardier.

I know a 29G is small for a linckia but the plan was to move him to my other 2 20Gs after a couple months. I've heard green serpents will kill and eat fish.

Nah mine is a brown serpent starfish he is part of my CUC. As much as I loved the bright red in my tank after doing my research I found that its difficult to feed those linkias where I know my serpent is eating he takes it right out of my hand. I hated to watch it suffer and litterally melt away. It was really gross too.

I've tried 2 linkias in the past, both ended up melting away on me. I had issues with stray voltage back then though, I've still been nervous about trying them again. Maybe Dennis will chime in, I know he's had success with his linkia from early on with his tank.

If you decide to try again, you could add an orange linkia, they don't get nearly as big as the blues. Only about 4" from what I've been told. Serpent star are pretty safe with live fish, green brittle stars are the ones that can/will ambush and eat a fish.

Without a doubt.
The problem with Linkia's being kept long term is diet. No one knows what they eat other than film off the glass. At least serpents and brittles eat detritus, leftover food, etc.

Mine has been fine for over a year now. I have in in a 24 Bio at the moment but plan on a transfer back to the 120 soon. After I initially got him I saw the same thing Sen. Stringy looking stuff coming out of him. Thought for sure he was doomed but nope, he was doing who knows what and is alive and well today. The ones I've seen dead and dying will normally fond a spot and start to deteriorate and melt away.

My blue one only lasted a couple weeks. They are so touchy. I know a lot of people have had good luck with them, but I won't buy one again. There seems to be a less than 50/50 shot of them surviving.

ive had a red Linkia for about 2 months now and i feed my urchin some seaweed ever couple of days and i find that if my urchin doesnt get his butt up to the seaweed before my starfish, the starfish eats it all with in a few hours, maybe try feeding them seaweed strips