Linkia Question - Ophiura or whoever

[bang guy]

I would like a few "Linkia" type Starfish for my refugium and I keep hearing not to keep more than one. Is it a simple matter of surface area?
I admitidly don't have a lot of Live Rock in the refugium, most of the area is open sandbed but there's quite a bit of surface area on the walls. Do you believe I could support more than one Linkia? If so how many? There's about 40 square feet of wall that would be accessible to the Starfish and it's very much alive with algae, Mussels, sponges, etc. Is the sandbed surface of any use to them?
Thank you for any responses.
Guy

 

[ophiura]

I would say your best chance is with one, and then let it reproduce if it determines there is enough to keep it fat and healthy (will drop arms to do this). I think that they would prefer to stay on LR, but then, I have never tried to keep one. I suppose they would hang out on the glass, but it would seem to me that if they did, people with less LR would still have success with them, and that doesn't seem to be the case. Most people seem to have success in large tanks, with a lot of LR, and only one Linckia. Now, IMO, your refugium falls into the catagory of a large system with a good amount of LR...probably the minimum amount of LR, IMO, for keeping two. So you can certainly give it a try. I am not going to lose sleep over this situation! There are far riskier systems for two Linckia.
The sand bed is of no use to them.
BigMac, can you give tank specs for your old 55g, eg amount of LR, age, how long the stars were in there, and what kind/color Linckia they were?