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I'm worried about my starfish (1 Viewer)

Mandarin_Jake

Mandarin_Jake

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Nov 3, 2013
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Anoka, MN, United States
So I know that it can be challenging to keep a blue linckia star, but a few weeks ago I picked up a really nice specimen at petco minnetonka. I acclimated it very slowly for about 3 hours. It's been very active and I love it in my tank. Recently though I've noticed a couple of white spots on its arms and I'm afraid that it's health is turning for the worse... I thought at first that maybe it's hurt itself wedging into my rockwork, but I've read a lot about them "melting" away. Any thoughts? Sorry for the not great picture. I'll try to get better ones in the days to come.uploadfromtaptalk1424060555555.jpg
 
I had a sand sifter back when I first got into the hobby - he disintegrated a couple months after I got him

From what I know - they a hard to keep if you don't have enough food in the sand bed for them. Thats just what I know about a sand sifter - not sure what the specs are for linkia but I have heard they can be hard to care for as well.

Sorry I dont have more to offer- I am sure other with more experience will chime in

Good Luck dude
 
When I had a blue Linkia years ago it lived for a while (maybe close to a year?), but never grew, and only once did I see any clear signs of it eating (one time I found it eating a chicken liver sponge - there was actually a missing portion of the sponge underneath it - it had clearly been eating that sponge). It must have been eating something otherwise, but I don't think it was usually getting enough of what it wanted. If it had been doing well it surely should have lived for much much longer (my experience with other echinoderms is that they normally have very long lives if they are getting fed well and if they have good, stable living conditions).

My strong suspicion is that many (most?) reef tanks don't have adequate food for these seastars (whatever it is that they eat... it seems that their diet is not well understood), and I suspect most of them starve to death.

And I suspect the current practice that it seems some folks have of killing everything on their rock (e.g. the acid washing I read about here) before setting up their tanks makes for a tank that is even less likely to support the likes of Linkia stars.

The Linkia I had never responded to my attempts to feed it the way, say, chocolate chip stars do. Chocolate chip stars are quite easy to feed, it is obvious when they are eating, and if well fed they can grow really well, and reach large sizes. (Chocolate chip seastars are not safe to keep in a reef tank though, of course, because they are so willing and able to eat so many things.)
 
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Understood. I don't clean my rock really, but maybe I have too many inverts already. I have a red sea serpent star thats doing great. Really bummed about it. Do think that maybe the MOA aquarium would take it maybe or something? I don't want it to die.
 
As you probably know, serpent stars and brittle stars are kind of completely different creatures with pretty different anatomy and different feeding habits. I doubt there is any significant competition between your serpent star and Linkia, if that is what you are thinking.
 
No, I know that. But interesting enough, I just came home to something ridiculous. My sea urchin was sitting on the tip of my linkias leg, just eating away. I'm freaking out. I'm moving my urchin to another tank to see if that helps. I'm pretty annoyed.
 
I had it the other way around, my red knobby star cornered my purple spiney urchin and ate him. It was crazy. The red star is for sale if you are interested for a carnivore tank!
 
I've had some good and bad experience with them. I bought my rock and sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater when I set up my 140 in June of 2014. I got a smallish, pebbly orange starfish that has been doing great since day one. That convinced me to get an orange star from LA and he was doing great too. I bought a blue linkia from a local store and it went south immediately and my other 2 both got sick and died. I wonder if the Linkia had a parasite of some sort?

I have never had luck with livestock from this guy and will never buy from him again. I really like the starfish and placed an order with Live Aquaria for a replacement Blue Linkia. Maybe I made a mistake since my other 2 were doing great and cruising the rocks and sand eating all the time?
 
At this point all three of my starfish appear to be well. The linckia had suffered some more damage from rockwork I believe but as been recovering just fine from what I can tell.
 
So I woke up this morning after my return pump failure to find my linckia on the sand bed with the previously damaged leg..like melting away? Like the flesh was just peeling off. I don't know what to do about it..anybody have any suggestions or thoughts?
 
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Don't know what to do with it at this point. Pretty sure it's a goner?
 
Jake, I've kept a lot of starfish over the years and had success with most of them, usually the hardest part is getting them acclimated properly. I have had a couple nice blue linkia over the years but those never seem to last long term. I have read endless amounts of info on them and there seems to be limited to almost no knowledge of what those specific stars eat. I had hoped having a successful refugium would keep one but even that didn't work long term. I have yet to ever meet anyone that has had a blue linkia survive long term as in many years, my guess is that an aquarium just cannot sustain these creatures and petco is the only place I have ever seen them sold. I wish you the best of luck but though all starfish do have amazing regeneration abilities, I have never seen or heard of a blue linkia regenerating, though I don't doubt it is possible. I'm not sure there is anything you can do to help. It's a wait and see thing at this point but I suspect he's a goner, sorry buddy!
 
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