PLEASE do lots of reasearch on seastars before purchase!!
Most reef safe stars are VERY DELICATE and need special acclimation and care. They should NOT go in a tank younger than 6 months, IMO, and conditions should be pristine (especially specific gravity around 1.026). They need long acclimations (generally 4+ hours).
Now before anyone says it, YES there are exceptions...people will write and say "I didn't do anything and its fine" but many or even MOST of these stars die from introduction to young, immature tanks without proper acclimation. A hole heck of a lot die at the LFS...so be sure you either get one right out of the bag (before going into dealer tanks) or one that has been at the LFS for at least a week and shows no whitish patches.
One can not assume that they will have the exceptional seastar that doesn't need acclimation and will take to spot feeding.
Reef safe stars can not be spot fed and must have access to lots of LR. Many or most will either die in the first month (acclimation shock) or in 8-12 months of starvation. People thing they died of disease, or were eaten by something. But in all likelihood they starved, as they do not eat algae and detritus as people say. If they did, we would all have a bunch of them happily munching in our tanks.
Success with a reef safe star such as a Linckia or Fromia should only be claimed after 1 year....the amount of time it takes a healthy wild caught animal to starve to death.
Blue Linckia, IMO, should not go in tanks under 100g with at least that much LR....again, there are exceptions, but this should not be counted on. Orange, purple and burgundy "Linckia" may be OK in 55-100g tanks if the smaller has lots of LR and only one star. I generally recommend only keeping one specimen of these stars as the compete for limited food. The only Linckia suitable, IMO, for reef tanks under 55g is Linckia multiflora, a smaller animal. Some others get by, but I don't recommend them.
Sand sifter stars, in most cases, will starve to death in 8-12 months after consuming all the beneficial critters in a sand bed. Some will take to spot feeding, but in general, I do not recommend keeping this star. They disintegrate, and people assume they are being attacked by something (hermits).
All brittlestars and serpentstars are suitable, but the green is a known predator. The bright red large brittlestar/serpent Ophioderma squamosissimum should only be kept in pristine mature reef tanks and needs long acclimation. Most die at this point. All brittle/serpentstars should be spot fed.
Chocolate chips, generals,and red africans are not reef safe and are predators of snails, corals, clams, scallops and any slow moving or sessile invertebrate.
Hope this helps.
