Keeping starfish in reef.
 

Just looking for advice on successfully keeping star fish in reef tanks. My 72 gal reef has been running for about a year now. Starfish seem to only last a couple of months. They slowly loose limbs, gradually loose the tips, then die off. Is the tank too young? Do they need to be target fed? Should i test for anything out of the ordinary? The corals are thriving, and growing. But the Starfish seem to be a struggle. I have this issue with clams also. Any advice would help. Thanks

I understand that they are not certain what a starfish eats. Had a red one for the longest time in my 72gal. Had it from basically the beggining. Then one day same
thing it slowly did the limb thing. It was in my tank for two years almost. Tried another
and don't think it even lasted a month. As for the clams they need to attach themselves
so nothing eats them. And lighting is important to.

many starfish should not be sold they are notorious for dieing quickly in our tanks, Some worse than others. Many reefers employ serpent or brittle stars as part of the clean up crew. I have some going on 7 years old. It is my understanding brittle scavenge free floating detritus and serpent are substrate scavengers

With the starfish it's probably a lack of food. And i'm not sure you can target feed as it has to be live in most cases.
Here is a good link for clams as it lets you know what the requirements are as far as food, placement, light etc.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/a....cfm?c=497+529

With seastars there really isn't a secret. It seems to me there are two different categories, those that we do know what they eat, and those that we don't know what they eat. Most of the "we know what it eats" are generally considered reef unsafe. Having said that I had 2 CC stars for many years and they never touched polyps, preferring to eat the nori I rolled over PVC pipe that I offered them. Maybe they would have gone after clams though had I had any of those in that tank.

Any of the ones we do consider safe are of the "we have no idea what they eat". Fromia, Linckia and their relatives for example. Unfortunately they either adapt to captive life, or they don't. IMHO there's really nothing a person can do to influence the outcome other than giving it a try and seeing how they do. Either they'll live a couple years or they'll die within a couple weeks to a couple months. Or so it seems anyhow. For the most part I've given up trying these kinds of seastars myself but as with everything YMMV. :)

I tried a sand sifter star a couple of months ago and he started losing limbs the day I put him in. He lasted all of 3 days. I have several brittle stars that came in my live rock and they seem to be thriving, no problems whatsoever.

are the brittle stars you buy at the LFS hard to keep?

What kind of starfish are you trying to keep? Some are near impossible to keep long term, others are more likely to thrive.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/abo...a/aa090602.htm

Linckia(blue, living), Linckia(burgrundy) Linckia(orange), Small red sea star, Double sea star, Marble star, Brittle Star(living), Serpent star. Mainly reef safe stars. Over a period of three years and two tanks. I take my time putting them in the tank, but they just don't seem to survive long. I would like to try to figure out why.

If you were trying to put multiple starfish in that 72g then that is where your trouble lies. The easiest starfish to keep are Brittle and Serpent, and the only starfish I would ever reccommend to anyone. I would bet they are dying of starvation. They have big appetites. Target feeding the Linckias should increase your chances of them surviving.