Blue Linckia Starfish

mavis1032

mavis1032

Member
I have a Blue Linckia Starfish now for about 2 months. It likes to hide in the rocks and hardly ever comes out. I just found it towards the front of the tank with what looks like a chunk of one of his legs missing. There is nothing in the tank that could of bit it off. Is it possible that he got stuck in a rock crevice and tore it off himself? Will the piece grow back or is he a gonner?
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
How large is your tank? How long has the tank been running? What are your water parameters (specifically your salinity).
Blue and orange linkias tend to not do well in captivity, especially in small tanks with inadequate food. Nobody really knows what they eat; all we know is that they need lots and lots of live rock on which to graze on.
Hopefully Ophiura will chime in here as she is the resident starfish expert I believe. I don't know too much about starfish other than they are very sensitive to salinity changes, need higher salinity, and that most of them are either unsuitable for captivity or reef unsafe.
 
mavis1032

mavis1032

Member
94gal corner bow. 150lbs live rock. Water tested every week at LFS and told everything is perfect(don't have exact spec's) Tank is up for 4 1/2 months. Doing 20 gal water change every 3 weeks.
Percula Clown
Purple Damsel
Yellow Tang
Cleaner Shrimp
Red Fire Shrimp
Red Linckia Starfish
Coral Banded Shrimp
Sailfish Tang
Blonde Naso Tang
Blue Linckia Starfish
2 Bangaii Cardinals
Red Fire Shrimp
Purple Tip Anenome
Green Center Zoo Polyup
Torch Coral
Open Brain
Green Mushroom
Hairy Mushroom
2 Large Feather Dusters
Yellow Carnation Anenome
Everything is doing well. Red star is great fun to watch very mobile(about half the size of the Blue star.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Without knowing your specific tank parameters, it is impossible to really know more. Specific gravity can be "fine" for fish only but fatal for these stars.
I would also say that it is a very very highly stocked tank for such a young tank. Ideally, IMO, seastars should not be added until the tank is at least 6 months old, to allow several parameters to stabilize (that we don't even test for). The age of the tank is a concern for me.
This is not an easy star to keep but if it is at least more than a month old, that is good news. But this still is, IMO, a bit on the small size for this star AND another similar star. Most will not survive beyond a year and a half, and die of starvation. Two similar stars speeds up that process, IMO.
It is extremely unlike the arm was "caught."
It is possible the arm "dropped" as a form of asexual reproduction.
Only time will tell if it will improve. If the arm does not appear to heal then I would be very concerned.
 
mavis1032

mavis1032

Member
Thanks for the info. It sure looks like it was choped by something but I don't know for sure. The red star has been in the tank for almost 3 months it is a lot smaller but seems to be very healthy, never stopping in one place for very long.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Unfortunately, seastars look fine without a sign of problems while, harsh though it sounds, they are digesting their internal organs. Mostly people will have no idea there is a problem until they start falling apart...at which point people assume they were attacked by something. They just don't show outward signs of problems.
But starvation takes months (6-12) to really be a factor.
 
mavis1032

mavis1032

Member
Originally Posted by ophiura
Unfortunately, seastars look fine without a sign of problems while, harsh though it sounds, they are digesting their internal organs. Mostly people will have no idea there is a problem until they start falling apart...at which point people assume they were attacked by something. They just don't show outward signs of problems.
But starvation takes months (6-12) to really be a factor.
when you say "falling apart" are you talking about a full leg droping off or will it look like something literally ripped off a part of one of its legs?
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
It may vary, but often they seem to "melt" with pieces falling off irregularly. Not necessarily the whole arm.
 
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