Starfish for a 29g

yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
Hey all,
What would be a good starfish for a 29g tank? I was hoping to put an orange linkia in there, but after doing some research, it seems that they need a lot more space/rockwork. I was hoping for something a little more colorful than a brittle star, but I obviously want something that will survive. Are tile stars like linkias in terms of their needs? Any and all ideas are welcome.
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
Oh yeah,
This tank will have sponges along with corals and other sesile inverts, so it has to be a reef safe star.
Thanks.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
None of the reef safe stars are likely to survive long term in a 29g tank. Fromia may be even more picky than Linckia in its dietary preferences. Not a good choice, IMO. And if you don't want a brittle, then a sand sifter, will, IMO, be even more boring. You can potentially try a small Linckia multiflora, but without a fair amount of LR (how much are you planning?), it won't do well either.
And none of them should go into a tank younger than 6 months, IMO.
 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Active Member
susan, is there anyway you can tell how old a star is? i just read your comment abotu not younger than 6 months, and i was wondering how to tell!
thanks
jon
BTW, i had a Fromia Milleporella in my 20 (he was about the size of a fifty cent piece) for abouot 9 months then all ofa sudden the tips of his arms began to deteriorate...any ideas?
thanks again
jon
 
jumpfrog

jumpfrog

Active Member
Jon, I think Susan was saying the "tank" should not be younger that six months.
Great question though, I wonder how you tell the age of a starfish:confused:
 
ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
Yosemite-
I keep a Linckia Multiflora in my 29 gallon tank with about 50lbs of live rock. It has been in the tank for close to a year now and is still going strong. I hope that it continues to due well for me..............
Here it is.........


 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Active Member
good call on that one jumpfrog. i totally read that statement the worng way. but it would be cool if you could tell the age of a star. next were gonna have star psychics, etc. hey maybe thats what i need to do. have the animal psychic from animal planet coem into the lfs i work at and tell me wether all the corals/fish/inverts/reptiles are happy! man i need to call AP asap!
hehe
good luck
jon
"Well your blue linkia is tellign me that he was abused by all the other stars when he was a baby, and this is why he dropped his arm and expelled his intestines the otherday, because when he thinks about it it makes him sick"
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
YEs, I meant tank :D It is very difficult to tell the age of echinoderms, though people have proposed things that may or may not work. In the end, I think it is just pretty darn hard to tell. Lots of variables go into growth rates, etc....
Anywho, aha! Ryebread I must hold your Linckia up as an example for all...don't let this go to your head though.
Probably the only star suitable for this size range of tanks, assuming that it is packed full of LR as I imagine it is.
jonthefb,
Yes. It is starving. Fromia may have an even more specialized diet than Linckia, believe it or not, and is doomed in small tanks. And in many large tanks for that matter. Its diet may consist more of sponges than anything else...and not necessarily all sponges. My bet is that it has been starving for 9 months, as do most of them.
I don't think I have heard much success with these guys in smaller tanks. But am willing to hear it. 1 year is the key mark for all the reef safe stars. If the make it past 12 months, there is hope for them.
My suspicion is that if you get another Fromia, it will die before or about the same time as this one. The disintegration is a characteristic sign- either of osmotic shock from a sketchy water change, or of starvation. So it is possible you had a sketchy water change, but then it might not be so mysterious if you had. My money is on the safe bet...it is starving, and it will continue to deteriorate :(
Is it all five arms?
 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Active Member
well you know what..l i think i figured it out. my girlfriend was taking care of the tank while i was gone and she told me that she checked the salinity and it was a little low. i told her to mix up a small thing of SW. later i cam to find that instead of mixing up wate rshe just added soem salt directly to the tank... could this have cause the star to perish?
the wounds were on the tips of all 5 arms. he was still very active while damaged, but his condition continued to grow worse so i eventually pulled him out.
could the direct addition of salt to the water stressed him out? i know it has very ill effects on corals, i assume it woudl be the same with inverts!
thanks for your help
jon
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
Susan et al.,
Thanks for the info. There is about 40 lbs of lr in the tank now, and I don't plan on adding any more. I may just end up skipping starfish all together.
 
rook

rook

Member
Don't give up on brittles. The first time you feed a brittle you will love it. Also, the fact that they will eat a fish or other critter if it dies and goes into the back of the tank is very benficial so you don't have to worry about the decaying fish causing an ammonia spike.
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
I actually have two brittles (one green, one red) in my big reef tank that are nice, but hide a lot and only come out at night (mostly). The 29 gallon in going to be a deep water tank, so the corals and other inverts will have a lot of color and I wanted a starfish to go along with them. If I can catch him, I may take the green one out and put him in the new tank after a while.
 
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