blue linkia starfish

[miek]

I am interested at getting one of these blue starfish; but I have a couple of concerns/questions about these starfish. I have heard that they are susceptible to disease. Would this be a disease that would infect anything else in my tank (coral, starfish, other inverts)? Is it treatable and what are the signs to look for on a starfish that is infected.
Mike

 

[sencinias]

My fiancee had brought me one home as a gift (without research) and it looked okay for a few weeks, then it had these big white bumps one them. It didn't move much during the day and I had noticed it didn't move at all one day so he reached in and tried to move it and it was hard as a rock, dead and when we finally got to see the back leg that was hidden it was falling apart. I called the LFS and they said it must have had a bacteria disease of some sort. Once that happened, I seemed to have develop Marine Velvet and lost 4 of my 6 fish. All corals were fine. I have since recuperated from that nightmare and found out we should not have touched the blue starfish either. They are susceptible to the oils in our hands. I'm not sure if he caused the Marine Velvet outbreak or not, but I hear they can be very sensitive animals although I'd love to have another, I'm not sure that I am ready for that one yet. Good luck and research them alot if you decide to get one. Maybe others here can help. That was just my experience. Thanks.

 

[goofieones]

All I have to say, is stay away!! They are very hard too keep!! You can tell one is healthy if it is stiff, once is goes limp it's a goner. Anyways I had one, ordered it from this site and my water was awesome, the darn thing only lasted a week, one day I look in the tank and there was this brown stuff under it, I wondered what the heck, so I poked it with my graber for the tank, and it was limp, I lifted it out and it was rotting away........ and holy cow did it smell. Well then my Regal Tang got ich for the first time, probably because the starfish was rotting in the tank. Anyways, no more blue starfish for me. My tang is fine now and everyone is good. Go with a green brittle star, I hear those are pretty hardy and come out more than the regular black ones.

 

[sonny]

Actually, they are not hard to keep, they are EXTREMELY sensitive to changes in ph and salinity. They need to be acclimated VERY slowly, like 8-10 hours on a drip system. What you described is exactly what happens to them when they were acclimated too fast. They get white blotches on them, and start to fall apart. A big problem is that the ph changes drastically in transit in a bag. I think shipping is a big problem for them too. I'm staying away from them.
Sonny

 

[miner]

I had one. I acclamated it for 8 hrs. doing the drip method. He still only lasted about 2 weeks. They are so pretty that I keep getting tempted to try another. I hope I never get tempted again to try another

 

[teetee]

I have had one for about four months now. I would describe mine as tough as nails! I did not give it specialized acclimatation. Comes out quite regularly as it scavenges throughout the tank. I guess I'm lucky. TT

 

[goofieones]

Yeah, I knew about having to acclimate them longer, so I did it for 4 hours........ still no luck. I bet if you bought if from a lfs, instead of the internet it would do better, because the water doesn't change as much on the way home from the lfs,, as it does from swf.com to your house.

 

[fat_ed]

Having also had a bad experience with a blue linkia, I wanted to recommend a red fromia if you are still interested in keeping a star. I've had mine for over a month, and he is doing fantastic -- I never feed him directly, he is constantly on the move, and he occasionally gets himself into some hysterical situations. The other day I watched him dangle from a rock shelf by one arm for a few minutes and then fall on my maroon clown. After scaring the bejeezus out of the clown, he turned himself over and went merrily on his way.

 

[miek]

All and all I think the negative experiances out number the postive, so I have decided againist the blue starfish. I was at my LFS yesterday and saw they had some white sand sifters, I purchased two of those. Those will have to be the starfish for my reef, I guess

 

[corky]

aside from not touching them with your hands they should also not be allowed to touch the air. They can be very hard to keep despite all of your best intentions because you don't know how it was prevously handled and they may already be going downhill before you buy one. I beleive there origin also has something to do with their sensitivity.