feeding my starfish?

[MamaJones]

We have a blue linkia starfish in our tank. We had this current "Peggy" for 3 months now, which I'm very happy about since she is our 3rd attempt. The first one died and, the 2nd one was recieved with a gouge in her leg which slowly ate away all of her legs. So, Peggy seems to be doing very well; she is active most of the day. I researched some extensive articles on starfish, but they still leave me with questions. A few weeks ago, she uncharacteriskly spent 3 days in one spot so I asked the fish dealer why a normally active star would do that. He said she was probably digusting a snail. So, we got some more snails since there weren't too many in the tank. The problem is I think the snails are cleaning the tank too effienctly and are leaving her with little else to eat.

Does anyone have any similar experience? Or if anyone has this kind of starfish, what have you found they eat?

[cgoodman381]

You could probably feed her a silverside or something. Never had a linka myself, but it would probably work.

[daugherty]

Tje bule linkas are nocturnal as far as i know you will usuall not see them move very much during the day and as far as feeding them i fed mine little peices of cod.

[MamaJones]

where do you get cod and how do you feed it to her? And what is a silverside?

[Bifferwine]

Nobody knows what linkias eat. That's why they have such a poor survival rate in captivity. It's very rare for someone to be able to keep one alive for more than a few months. They are one of those "experts only" animals that not even the "experts" can keep alive.

[daugherty]

Originally Posted by MamaJones

where do you get cod and how do you feed it to her? And what is a silverside?

cod is just a fish that you can buy at the gerocery store and silversides you can get at the LFS

[MamaJones]

Originally Posted by Bifferwine

Nobody knows what linkias eat. That's why they have such a poor survival rate in captivity. It's very rare for someone to be able to keep one alive for more than a few months. They are one of those "experts only" animals that not even the "experts" can keep alive.

yeah, I found that out after-the-fact. we got most of our fish at petsoultions.com and they're information says the linkia is hardy. After I read up on them I found out they are nearly impossible to feed...however we are in our 3rd month. What I'm finding out about this hobby is to do lots of the research first and not to trust online stores b/c afterall, they are just trying to sell you a product.

will pieces of of like "peel-and-eat" shrimp work? if cooked plainly of course? I don't have cod on hand, but I could get some.

[Bifferwine]

Do not feed your animals cooked seafood. Raw shrimp is just fine, though. My local grocery stores carry very limited fresh seafood (we're in the middle of the desert), but I've always been able to find raw, frozen scallops which work great as fish food, as well as raw oysters in a jar.