Orange marble starfish

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Joe Reefer

I can be pretty disheartening to watch these poor guys fade into nothing. I learned my lesson once now I try to stay away from these little guys.

I'm the same way. I had a blue linckia live for about 1.5 years and that's the best I've ever been able to manage with these kinds of stars, and although I hear of similar stories, I think you have to really get lucky to get that far.

On different occasions, I've tried 2 fromia's, 1 purple linckia, and a sand sifting star, and none of thise ever lived more than a couple months - just a slow gradual deterioration until they were gone. I stay away from the stars whose diets we don't know. CC stars, OTOH, at least we know what they eat, so if you're OK with the fact they're not reef-safe, can at least do well in an appropriate tank.

Back in December, a friend came to me and asked for a favour - could I babysit some critters from his boss's tank while they did a copper treatment to deal with some bad ick - it turned out one of the critters was a sand-sifting star. I knew right away this was a bad idea, but since they were stuck, I said, sure, I'll try my best. Even though I did a drip acclimation over 24 hours, the thing never moved in my tank - maybe 2-3". Within a week the tips were disintegrating. 2 more weeks after that it was completely dead. It just solidified in my mind - these things don't really belong in our tanks. If we don't know how to feed them, we probably shouldn't be surprised if they starve.