Clams and Starfish

[jb61264]

Sitting in my living room with my tank running in the background (just added water today) and was wondering about clams

I love clams and want to have a couple in my tank...will they be okay if I have a brittle star or serpent star in the tank as well? I have a 40 breeder aquarium with about 1-1.5" of sand (3" in my refugium sandbed)...how many stars should I have?...just one?...knowing I want to have at least two clams.

 

[yote]

Clams will be fine with serpent stars and most brittle stars.Just stay away from the green brittles and chocolate chip stars.
CCs will eat anything and every thing they can climb over.And the green brittles are know as the green death because of the habit of catching and eatting fish.
As for how many stars,you'll probably end up with a few hundred of the micro stars.There a common hitch hiker in live rock.But you can safely add a couple of stars without any problems.

 

[fishbait]

some stars such as the linkia are hard to keep because no one knows for shure what they eat, and they eventually starve to death. and most are not reef safe. be sure and do plenty of research before buying one. IMO stay away from the sand sifting stars. they will wipe out all the fauna in the sand bed in no time. especially in a small tank. I currently have a red bali starfish in my tank and have had good luck with it so far. It has never eaten any corals and has stayed healthy as a horse. I believe the latin name for the bali is fromia. there are two different types of fromia, one is reef safe, and one is not.

 

[reeffreak]

What lighting were you running again?
Clams are fine with T5 and MH,not so much if they are PC's.

Sand sifting sea stars IMO should be left in the wild.Like Fish said they will desecrate the sand bed of life.

 

[jb61264]

What lighting were you running again?
Clams are fine with T5 and MH,not so much if they are PC's.

Sand sifting sea stars IMO should be left in the wild.Like Fish said they will desecrate the sand bed of life.

I will stay away from sand sifting stars, will go after a nice brittle and/or serpent star...variety will be the name of the game in my tank :)

My T5 HO Nova Extreme Pro (6 tubes) arrives on Tuesday:
Aquarium Lighting for Reef Systems: Nova Extreme Pro T-5 System by Current

Will this be sufficient for doing clams?...I have a 40 gallon breeder style aquarium.

 

[reeffreak]

It will be plenty for clams.

 

[Doc]

you will want to wait a few months before adding a clam. they can be tricky to keep in a new tank

-Doc

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with what has already been said, you can probably have two stars, and I would stick with brittle and serpent stars. And that lighting should be okay for clams.

 

[fishbait]

but, but, what about the bali stars, biff? you can't forget them!