Sea Lilly
- Thread starter sundance1
- Start date
mythrenody
Member
Sounds cool,have a pic?
bdubbya
Member
That looks like a feather star. It is virtually impossible to keep and almost always die of starvation. Look up crinoid in the search feature or google it that should give you some info. Just recently there was a thread about starfish that was done by Ophiura (she has a degree in marine biology specializing in brittlestars). Hopefully that helps.
Good luck.
Good luck.
fishieness
Active Member
it does look like a feather star, but i have seem these "sea lilies" im not sure, but i believe that they are similar to a feather duster.
ophiura
Active Member
Sea lilly = feather star = crinoid.
Feather stars do not necessarily have 5 arms. That information is incorrect. What is correct is the poor long term care.
Please research more. Most will die in captivity. I strongly discourage anyone keeping them. They are extremely sensitive, suffer a lot in shipping, and generally starve in all but large very mature reef tanks that have a lot of invertebrate larvae .
They feed using their tube feet...but this does not mean they are ingesting what you see them reacting too. Very few people have kept them long term...if it was as easy as stuff in a bottle, that would be a different story.
Feather stars do not necessarily have 5 arms. That information is incorrect. What is correct is the poor long term care.
Please research more. Most will die in captivity. I strongly discourage anyone keeping them. They are extremely sensitive, suffer a lot in shipping, and generally starve in all but large very mature reef tanks that have a lot of invertebrate larvae .
They feed using their tube feet...but this does not mean they are ingesting what you see them reacting too. Very few people have kept them long term...if it was as easy as stuff in a bottle, that would be a different story.
E
eaglefan
Guest
everything that ophiura is exactly what my lfs salesman told me when they had some in stock. Since I'm up there every other day he didn't want me to come back yellin. 1 out of a hundred plus survive. Good luck and keep us updated.
fishieness
Active Member
Originally Posted by sundance1
Will do.I was at the lfs store when they recieved this one.It came from a customer,I don't know how long he had it.It was doing well at the lfs for weeks,so I bought it.I'm sure at one time it was considered impossible to keep ANY marine animals.
I think this is part of the problem, sure it was once considered impossible, but that was before we knew much about them. It is the same thing with flame scallops. They may take food, but it doesnt mean that they are injesting it. We dont know exactly what it eats. It is believed to eat invert larvae, something that we cannot produce enough of in a small aquarium.
Will do.I was at the lfs store when they recieved this one.It came from a customer,I don't know how long he had it.It was doing well at the lfs for weeks,so I bought it.I'm sure at one time it was considered impossible to keep ANY marine animals.
I think this is part of the problem, sure it was once considered impossible, but that was before we knew much about them. It is the same thing with flame scallops. They may take food, but it doesnt mean that they are injesting it. We dont know exactly what it eats. It is believed to eat invert larvae, something that we cannot produce enough of in a small aquarium.
harial
Member
Feather stars have extremely sensitive feeding habits. their needs to be A LOT of food and that food needs to be the correct type and size. what ever you feed them needs to be below 200 microns. They also prefer invert larvae and eggs. DTs Oyster eggs and rotifers are good choices for a feather star. However cyclopeeze, phyto and zooplankton are much to big for this animal. But like I said, one of the big problems is the fact that they need a lot of food, and on many occasions that amount of food will cause a massive algea outbreak and your trates and phostphates will be out of control. Starvation is the #1 killer of these animals so do as much research about them as you can on their diet. Ask around on different reef forums also.
Also someone mentioned flame scallops. My research shows that the feather star and the flame scallop have almost identical feeding habits. Rotifers and Oyster eggs seem to be the best food source that I have found.
Also someone mentioned flame scallops. My research shows that the feather star and the flame scallop have almost identical feeding habits. Rotifers and Oyster eggs seem to be the best food source that I have found.
shoreliner11
Active Member
Originally Posted by sundance1
Will do.I was at the lfs store when they recieved this one.It came from a customer,I don't know how long he had it.It was doing well at the lfs for weeks,so I bought it.I'm sure at one time it was considered impossible to keep ANY marine animals.
A few weeks or even a month is not a timescale to aquate good health of the animal. Many of them will look good for months but they are slowly starving. Don't think you're special in having a healthy looking crinoid, as I have personally seen a lot look healthy at a lfs for over a month. But, do try and listento the opinions of those who have more experience with the animal...especially ophiuria. Sorry if it came across as a flame, that was not my intention.
Aaron
Will do.I was at the lfs store when they recieved this one.It came from a customer,I don't know how long he had it.It was doing well at the lfs for weeks,so I bought it.I'm sure at one time it was considered impossible to keep ANY marine animals.
A few weeks or even a month is not a timescale to aquate good health of the animal. Many of them will look good for months but they are slowly starving. Don't think you're special in having a healthy looking crinoid, as I have personally seen a lot look healthy at a lfs for over a month. But, do try and listento the opinions of those who have more experience with the animal...especially ophiuria. Sorry if it came across as a flame, that was not my intention.
Aaron
ophiura
Active Member
Google "Rob Toonen Feather Stars" and the first thing that comes up should help...if there is any. I don't know that he still has this animal, but his message - that it is in a large mature reef system with refugium and loads of invertebrate larvae - is a good place to start. Harial is spot on in suggested things to feed, IMO.
