Newest Addition to My Tank.
- Thread starter d12monkey
- Start date
d12monkey
Member
Originally posted by Darknes
I was just curious how you were able to ID this starfish if there were only two pictures that exist of it?
How long did it take to ID?
Google search under the images section. Lucky found it with in half hour and verified. the image was title with the scientific name. And veryfied with some dried samples off of a research site. :thinking: forget which one.
jsb
Member
There is an image of one on deepseaimages dot com. Yours looks better. It said it was a deep sea star, but they found that one in 20 feet of water. How deep were you when you found it?
BTW yours looks much better.
It also states that it is listed as the best photo of one. I think we have a new winner!
BTW yours looks much better.
It also states that it is listed as the best photo of one. I think we have a new winner!
d12monkey
Member
Originally posted by JSB
There is an image of one on deepseaimages dot com. Yours looks better. It said it was a deep sea star, but they found that one in 20 feet of water. How deep were you when you found it?
BTW yours looks much better.
It also states that it is listed as the best photo of one. I think we have a new winner!
Thanks for the compliment. I was in exactly 54 ft of water on a sandy bottom. I saw that photo. It was the one I used to identify it.
d12monkey
Member
Originally posted by JSB
Yep...I read that. This might sound stupid, but I'm far from being a connoisseur. I wonder why it's a deep sea star? Could the light be a factor as to why they are only found in deep waters?
I can't wait to hear what happens.
I really don't know but enlcosed is a link to the chart of the Yucatan Pennisula and the dept range of where they were found.
http://biblioweb.dgsca.unam.mx/cienc.../img/p042a.gif
Also a chart that goes along with the graph.
http://biblioweb.dgsca.unam.mx/cienc.../img/p042b.gif
Apparently the shallowest one recovered over there was around 40 m which approx. 132 feet.
The only other color photo that I've found is one the John Easly* (not sure on spelling) which was taken at 20 ft of water.
ophiura
Active Member
Beautiful star!
I am not sure you will hear much back, but it is excellent that you took the time to write! Maybe someone will....
Here is the thing, there just are not a lot of people who study seastars in general, and it isn't often that a institution will have a seastar expert around who is doing research on them. Big museums are often interested in dead specimens and where they came from There are quite a few pictures and specimens out there, just not online, and probably not living in a tank. Scientists know about the animal, but not too much about its behavior in the wild.
I wrote a seastar guy and told him about the thread (I may dig out a few other names to write to to get you more info) -
Goniaster tesselatus isn't really that rare in
collections (I have about 30+ here in front of me)-and like most goniasterid starfish nobody knows anything about it because they live on the shelf out of reach from most people. I will say though, that I've never seen purple ones before! Very cool!
So it may be fun to feed it (it is likely predatory so watch valuable animals), but otherwise it might go down as one of those cool and extremely beautiful oddities. In terms of ecological study, it isn't in its natural environment...so kind of hard to know exactly if it is behaving normally and it is a single specimen so that may hinder other uses. Normally animals need to be collected in larger samples.
I am thinking about the lighting issue, which could be a valid one. Indeed, it may not care for the intense lighting of reef tanks. Hard to know for sure!!
I am not sure you will hear much back, but it is excellent that you took the time to write! Maybe someone will....
Here is the thing, there just are not a lot of people who study seastars in general, and it isn't often that a institution will have a seastar expert around who is doing research on them. Big museums are often interested in dead specimens and where they came from
There are quite a few pictures and specimens out there, just not online, and probably not living in a tank. Scientists know about the animal, but not too much about its behavior in the wild. I wrote a seastar guy and told him about the thread (I may dig out a few other names to write to to get you more info) -
Goniaster tesselatus isn't really that rare in
collections (I have about 30+ here in front of me)-and like most goniasterid starfish nobody knows anything about it because they live on the shelf out of reach from most people. I will say though, that I've never seen purple ones before! Very cool!
So it may be fun to feed it (it is likely predatory so watch valuable animals), but otherwise it might go down as one of those cool and extremely beautiful oddities. In terms of ecological study, it isn't in its natural environment...so kind of hard to know exactly if it is behaving normally and it is a single specimen so that may hinder other uses. Normally animals need to be collected in larger samples.
I am thinking about the lighting issue, which could be a valid one. Indeed, it may not care for the intense lighting of reef tanks. Hard to know for sure!!
C
capschamp
Guest
contact the shedd aquarium in chicago. if you havent already
d12monkey
Member
Interesting observation about Coney (the starfish
) several people have mentioned that the light intensity might be a problem. It was placed in my 55 Gal tanks with that in mine from the start, well also because my 29 is a reef and I didn't know if it was reef safe. But I have observed that the starfish seems to be moving towards the higher intensity light. My 55 gal FOWLR tank really is under lit. I only have a single HO daylight 48 in bulb in there. In the process of upgrading to convert to full reef. But I do have a small 24 in PC fixture with a 50/50 bulb and Actinc blub for a total of 72 wats extra to spot light over a specific area of live rock. I noticed that the starfish seems to move towards that type of lighting, because I've moved the fixture to give the other side of the tank some better lighting till my VHO bulbs come in and the starfish moved to the side which had the fixture. The lights of the aquarium was turned of but the light in the room is still on and the starfish moved to the side closest to the light. :notsure: this from a deep sea star? I think since we know so little of these creatures that we assume certain things can affect it. True the star is not in it's natural habitat but a live speciman is better than a dead as it will still allow some sort of inferences made.
If anyone have any information as to the dietary needs of this starfish PLEASE PLEASE let me know. I've attempted to feed it shrimp and a piece of silverside and it has not eaten. I'm thinking it's still stress from the capture but it's been since Sun. I wonder if it'll eat at all before sat.
If anyone have any information as to the dietary needs of this starfish PLEASE PLEASE let me know. I've attempted to feed it shrimp and a piece of silverside and it has not eaten. I'm thinking it's still stress from the capture but it's been since Sun. I wonder if it'll eat at all before sat.
d12monkey
Member
ophiura,
Thanks for the info. Guess it's not as rare as I thought. Because I had someone confirm that it really is G. Tessellatus today. She was from the University of Miami Marine Biology department.
She also state that it's found off of Mexican Deep waters. :notsure: What's it doing on the east coast of Florida? :thinking: Great might create more questions than answers LOL.
capschamp,
Thanks, will attempt to contact tomorrow. Thinking of also contacting Montarey Bay Aquarium in CA and The Miami Seaquarium. See if I can get some answers.
Thanks for the info. Guess it's not as rare as I thought. Because I had someone confirm that it really is G. Tessellatus today. She was from the University of Miami Marine Biology department.
She also state that it's found off of Mexican Deep waters. :notsure: What's it doing on the east coast of Florida? :thinking: Great might create more questions than answers LOL.
capschamp,
Thanks, will attempt to contact tomorrow. Thinking of also contacting Montarey Bay Aquarium in CA and The Miami Seaquarium. See if I can get some answers.
ophiura
Active Member
Hmmm, odd observation about the lighting....but keep watching! (as if you can take your eyes off it!)
Yes, forgot about UM...indeed someone there would have been able to ID it as they proved
I contacted Dr. McClintock who is mentioned in the abstract you noted above (from Alabama Sea Grant). He didn't know anyone who was interested in the specimen in particular...but suggested you keep trying with the fish/shrimp in terms of diet. If it eats, he suggested feeding about once a week. I'll let you know if I hear from anyone else!
(as if you can take your eyes off it!)Yes, forgot about UM...indeed someone there would have been able to ID it as they proved
I contacted Dr. McClintock who is mentioned in the abstract you noted above (from Alabama Sea Grant). He didn't know anyone who was interested in the specimen in particular...but suggested you keep trying with the fish/shrimp in terms of diet. If it eats, he suggested feeding about once a week. I'll let you know if I hear from anyone else!
d12monkey
Member
Originally posted by ophiura
Hmmm, odd observation about the lighting....but keep watching!
(as if you can take your eyes off it!)Yes, forgot about UM...indeed someone there would have been able to ID it as they proved
I contacted Dr. McClintock who is mentioned in the abstract you noted above (from Alabama Sea Grant). He didn't know anyone who was interested in the specimen in particular...but suggested you keep trying with the fish/shrimp in terms of diet. If it eats, he suggested feeding about once a week. I'll let you know if I hear from anyone else!
Thanks for the info.
Thank you everyone that have contributed with this tread.
PS. Ophiura, do you have any pictures of the dry speciemens you have in you possesion? I'd love to see them. Do you know the max size of this star? Mine is the size of my palm roughly, wondering if it's going to get much bigger then it is already.
Thanks again
ophiura
Active Member
Fortunately I have none in front of me....being a brittlestar person, I am happy to say there are no seastars around. We're kind of elitist brats in that regard. But alas, there are also no brittlestars around except on posters. However, I will write the guy who does have some around and ask him.
