Starfish

[zippyjr123]

okay i have this starfish that one of my friends brought home while snorkelling.. it is black with tanish round bumps ... what is it and what does it eat?!?!
and is it tank and reef safe he said that he found it near rocks and grass out in the gulf near the channel somewhere and i wanna know if its okay to have ... ill put up a pic shortly as soon as i can find out how to upload this pic :-):sfish:

 

[zippyjr123]

here is the starfish... what do you think it is:question::sfish:

:sfish::question:

 

[Doc]

I have never seen a starfish like that before. I know that as a general rule, the long-legged, non-webbed starfish are more "reef safe" than those that are webbed (choc chip star, etc). I would never put anything in my tank that came directly from the ocean. I would put it in QT for a while for observation. I have way too many corals and other inverts that I prize to risk an unknown starfish. just my :twocents:

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[Bifferwine]

No idea either. It's not in my book :D.

 

[yote]

No idea,Wouldnt trust it either.

 

[d.french]

i got 2 of those from lfs, not sure but they are very hardy. Our lfs calls them yellow linkia.

 

[zippyjr123]

We Put the starfish in our 29 gal. tank, we don't have much in there and figured it would be safer to keep it there until we find out more about it.

 

[zippyjr123]

i got 2 of those from lfs, not sure but they are very hardy. Our lfs calls them yellow linkia.

What do you feed them?

 

[d.french]

not sure what it eats but i've seen it extract its stomach on the sides of tank were there is algae so maybe it eats film algae not sure but have had for a year now and doing great i got a picture somewhere in my photo gallery.

 

[AndyB4784]

You should throw it back in the ocean if you don't know what it eats.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree. No sense in chancing it and risking its life.

 

[d.french]

here is one of mine.

but it is a good idea to research before you buy or bring home from ocean.

 

[d.french]

mine never hurt any corals either moves around them or even on them with no harm.

 

[bobby]

Never seen one like that before, but I have read that stars with bumps are carnavorse and will mostlikly try to eat corals, so becareful. Good luck and let us know if it works out for you.

 

[Doc]

I don't know if anyone really knows what linkia starfish eat. Some thrive in tanks and others do not. Some will live for a year or more in reef tanks, and then just die. I have kept a blue linkia for almost two years and have never found out what he eats. He just spends all day wandering in and out of the rocks, but never on the glass - my orange linkia stayed mostly on the glass (until my angelfish massacred him). Up to you if you want to keep it, but I would throw it back.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[Alexander]

the starfish does look really cool. but i would be a little sketched out about it not knowing anything about it.

 

[zippyjr123]

I do have another question it has to do with the water movement in our tanks. The lfs isn't very helpful. So I was wondering if anyone can tell me how much water flow you should have in a 29 gal and in a 55 gal tank. The guy at the fish store told me I should be alright with what he sold me but I'm starting to wonder about them over there. The more questions I ask It seems to me he's pulling answers out of the sky :( I want to make sure everything is ok. In my 29 gal. he sold me 1maxi-jet powerhead 900 and the xp1 filter moves 250 gph, he said that should be good. now in our 55 gal we have 1 maxi-jet 900 230 gph, xp2 filter moves up to 300 gph , and 2 aqua-tech powerheads 170 gph. but the water doesn't seem to be moving like the ones at the pet store. They are bigger tanks but I was just concerned.

 

[d.french]

in my 29 gallon i have prizm skimmer, skilter hang on filter, 1 maxi jet 600, 1 maxi jet 1200.