Looking for info on this cool starfish...

[reeferious]

i want one like it where did you buy it from PLEASE

[Myka]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

I completely agree with you here. I think this guy is going to be a total crap shoot. [...] I figured he was super neat and rare and he was either doing to parish at the LFS or I was going to take him home, do my homework, figure out what he needs and see if I can achieve long term survival.

The trouble with that approach is that the LFS will bring more in because they sold. Maybe not this particular starfish as it may have been a mis-ID even from the supplier. When an LFS sells an animal quickly, they want to bring more of that animal in. I would rather see these animals die at the LFS because then the LFS wouldn't be so quick to want to order it again.

It takes a person trying to achieve success, though many more are sure to die in the process. People want to try to figure an animal out, but in the end they really don't provide anything special compared to the next Joe Reefer.

Originally Posted by reeferious

i want one like it where did you buy it from PLEASE

Please read this: Echinoderms in Aquaria by Ronald L. Shimek

[naesco]

Myka is right. By purchasing an impossible to keep species all reefers do is to encourage LFS to bring in more that end up dieing in our tanks.

The starfish pictured is likely a neoferdia glyptodisca.
It lives at 33 meters so, if you have a cool very dim reef set up you might meet this requirement.
Nothing is known about it feeding requirements.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Myka

The trouble with that approach is that the LFS will bring more in because they sold. Maybe not this particular starfish as it may have been a mis-ID even from the supplier. When an LFS sells an animal quickly, they want to bring more of that animal in. I would rather see these animals die at the LFS because then the LFS wouldn't be so quick to want to order it again.

It takes a person trying to achieve success, though many more are sure to die in the process. People want to try to figure an animal out, but in the end they really don't provide anything special compared to the next Joe Reefer.

Right, I do agree with you and I'm not about to start a debate on the ethics of this hobby, the collectors and the LFS that sells the stuff. Before everyone gets on their ethics high horse, it was a miss ID sent to the LFS. They ordered Linkia, they were sent "linkia" and they didn't know what to call it other than linkia, so they were selling it as a linkia. I was feeling him out to see if he actually new what he had; he thought it was linkia, I knew otherwise. In a situation like this I am more inclined to purchase it from the LFS and give it a fighting chance. Me buying or not buying a miss ID isn't going to stop another miss ID; if I go to Indo and show the collectors the differences between the species, then maybe I could do something there. About 95% of my livestock is aquacultured because I don't believe in collecting from the reefs; I too would rather let them lose money on wild caught livestock until they start changing to aquacultured livestock (then again, I'm also quite uneasy with watching them die when I know I can raise it successfully).

Unlike other average Joe Reefers, I AM willing to go to lengths to try and achieve success with it. Not saying that I am more special than anyone else who may have tried keeping this species but then again most Joe reefers haven't spent the past few nights going through scientific journals looking for info and having his marine biologist friend who specializes in enchinoderms come over to help suss out a plan. Being a university researcher I have access to a few more resources than your average reefer, and I'm trying to use them and do my best to learn more about a creature that hasn't even been studied much. But in my opinion, no book will ever come close to personal experience...

What I was looking for around here was to see if anyone else had stumbled on this species before and could provide a little more information than my reference books, not the usual forum attack and lecture about ethics and the LFS. Success with any species is incremental, I was hoping someone might have had an experience that I could build on.

Sorry to come off blunt, rude or angry... I'm not, nor is this particularly directed at you. I'm just getting frustrated with the usual negative responses on CanReef and other online forums (which I myself have given as well) when I was looking for positive support and a "let's try to figure this out together". We've all heard this lecture a number of times before; I want to move past that and try to actually learn something positive so that we can at least try to find ways of improving the success of certain species.

Originally Posted by naesco

Myka is right. By purchasing an impossible to keep species all reefers do is to encourage LFS to bring in more that end up dieing in our tanks.

The starfish pictured is likely a neoferdia glyptodisca.
It lives at 33 meters so, if you have a cool very dim reef set up you might meet this requirement.
Nothing is known about it feeding requirements.

Naesco, thanks for the help. The pictures I posted were not mine but pics online of what was ID'd as N. offreti. I think that ID is off personally. Mine is a toughy. It is somewhere between N. offreti and N. glyptodisca and I'm leaning more towards the latter.

From my discussions with the marine biologist, we think the temperature range of my tank is OK for this species and I agree with you that it prefers darker regions. This is obvious as it scoots into shaded areas when the main light comes on. I have a set up that gives large, open dark areas and I've moved it to these areas and it is certainly more active. My friend thinks that this one will likely be able to adapt to the varied lighting conditions given enough time. He's had a few deepwater species that he's acclimated to halides in only a few weeks.

I'm still trying a number of foods and seeing which get a feeding response. Funny enough, it seems to show some response to AcanPlus... I swear this stuff is becoming a miracle food. Seems to like the funk that grows on my glass and the jury is out on pods. I was able to catch some REALLY tiny pods last night with a syringe, flash froze them and then thawed them (easier to handle when dead... too fast alive). There was a feeding response but not like I was expecting... but that may have been due to my F***ing cleaner shrimp loosing their poo and poking at everything because there was food in the tank. So far, I think the best response comes from bacterial mulm.

So the only trick now is to see if I can keep it eating and healthy.

Originally Posted by MMAX

What did you pay for it if you don't mind me asking?

Uhhh... I think it was $20... basically they sold it for the same what they would sell a linkia.

[naesco]

If you post an actual pic of it I may be able to help identify it or I can post the names of 6 similar to the N. glyptodisca
Wayne

[Myka]

ScubaSteve, there are newbies coming to these forums all the time. The lesson always has to be repeated. As much as you find it irritating to get responses like that, there are many who find it irritating that people continue to buy "difficult" or "expert" animals with little regard to the animals' requirements (if they are even known).

I'm glad to hear you're putting a little extra effort into gaining information on the starfish, and trying to find a feeding response. It sounds like you actually care about the survival of the animal. That's one step in the right direction. I hope you find a breakthrough because even Linckia starfish have very poor long-term survival rates.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Myka

ScubaSteve, there are newbies coming to these forums all the time. The lesson always has to be repeated. As much as you find it irritating to get responses like that, there are many who find it irritating that people continue to buy "difficult" or "expert" animals with little regard to the animals' requirements (if they are even known).

I'm glad to hear you're putting a little extra effort into gaining information on the starfish, and trying to find a feeding response. It sounds like you actually care about the survival of the animal. That's one step in the right direction. I hope you find a breakthrough because even Linckia starfish have very poor long-term survival rates.

Seriously guys...
If none of us ever bought anything to do with this hobby, there would be no issues whatsoever.

You are only splitting hairs from your high horses.

We are all equally guilty and nobody should feel more responsible than anyone else unless you dont own an aquarium at all and enjoy the hobby from watching tv or going out into the depths to explore them for yourself.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by naesco

If you post an actual pic of it I may be able to help identify it or I can post the names of 6 similar to the N. glyptodisca
Wayne

I'm tryin'. He likes to hang out in a position where I can only see his underside, which isn't much help. When it moves to the rock work I'll try to get a pick. I does look almost exactly like the picks I posted (but more intense purple. Those pics by the way I think are actually N. glyptodisca and not N. offreti.

Originally Posted by Myka

ScubaSteve, there are newbies coming to these forums all the time. The lesson always has to be repeated. As much as you find it irritating to get responses like that, there are many who find it irritating that people continue to buy "difficult" or "expert" animals with little regard to the animals' requirements (if they are even known).

I'm glad to hear you're putting a little extra effort into gaining information on the starfish, and trying to find a feeding response. It sounds like you actually care about the survival of the animal. That's one step in the right direction. I hope you find a breakthrough because even Linckia starfish have very poor long-term survival rates.

Ya, I get that. But then again, I'm far from being a newbie. I might not have 7,000 Canreef posts but I do know my s***. Bare in mind that other "newbies" around here might be the same.

Again, not trying to pick a fight or be a dick, just sayin'.

Then again, as this is a completely new species to me, I am a newbie in that regards and I am needing help. If you have any advice for survival of linkia and fromia that could pass on to me, that'd be awesome!

Originally Posted by gobytron

Seriously guys...
If none of us ever bought anything to do with this hobby, there would be no issues whatsoever.

You are only splitting hairs from your high horses.

We are all equally guilty and nobody should feel more responsible than anyone else unless you dont own an aquarium at all and enjoy the hobby from watching tv or going out into the depths to explore them for yourself.

I agree. And also, the only way we have ever learned to keep any species is by trying and learning. Th first big step was when we figured out how to keep SPS. The for years people said that you couldn't do mandarins; we started doing mandarins. Then they said you couldn't do mandarins in nanos; again, that's been proven wrong. Heck, look at Azoox tanks where people are keeping Dendronephthya successfully, and I remember someone long again saying we'd never be able to keep them.

We just need people to not blindly buy livestock and have it waste away; we need people who buy them and learn over time what it takes to keep them until we are successful.