best way to feed star?

[bigpete]

any tips on feeding an orange linkia? i am well aware of the difficulty of taking care of these stars, but im up to the challenge and am curious. any tips would be helpful

 

[dogstar]

They mainly feed off of detritus from lots and lots of live healthy rock. I never spot feed my Blue anything and hardly ever see it because its back in the rocks ( 200 lbs in my tank ) scavageing. I have had it nearly 5 years. Not good to have alot of competitors like other detrius feeders in with them.

 

[wax32]

The main problem with Linckia seastars is that noone is really sure what they eat. Trying to "feed it" will be fruitless. Just make sure you have a well established tank with lots of liverock and good microalgae growth.

 

[ctgretzky9]

You cannot feed them. They need TONS of live rock to graze on, in an established tank with good STABLE parameters. They do not tolerate swings in salinity or pH/alk.
No one knows exactly what they eat, but best guesses are encrusting sponges, and other flora/fauna found only on rock hat has been in a tank for a year or more, and it is reccommended that you continually add some live rock to increase the amount to graze on.
Here is mine, just had a birthday:

 

[bigpete]

sounds great, really good input from everyone, thanks!

 

[ophiura]

Simply they rarely take to spot feeding and need large amounts of LR. If you do not have this, I am afraid there is no challenge in keeping them. Most will starve in smaller tanks or those without enough LR, if they survive acclimation. It takes a good year for them to starve, so success should not be measured before about a year and a half.
I wrote a thread on these stars and others. It is posted in the Archives section.