I bought a Blue Linkia Star fish. This was the prize of my aquarium and one of my favorites creatures in my main display tank. I can remember when he arrived from the online vendor I purchased him from and I was super excited. I even named him Ralph. Well that was one month ago.
And I have some sadnews to report, Ralph is very sick, and I think I will lose him. In fact I already have. The sad part of Blue Linkia Star fishes are the fact that they have a very low
survivability rate in reef aquariums. This is partly because that 1) most people do not acclimate them as long as they are supposed to and 2) nobody really knows what they eat. Some say that they eat mirco-algae, still others say that they eat micro organisms. We do know this for sure, they don’t eat meaty items that most local fish stores say they eat. Even some online sources say they eat meaty items, this however is not the case. To keep a Blue linkia starfish I
recommend the following:
1) Kept in at least with 150lbs of Live Rock
2) Tank up and running for at least a year
These two things are found to have the highest success rate in keeping a Blue Linkia Star Fish. I know this is a result of poor husbandry on my part. I will most likely try another in a few months when my tank is more mature.
Pics of dying Blue Linkia Star Fish
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This thing has 3 Comments
That is so very sad. But very grateful that you took the time to post such info. I had my eye on a baby blue starfish. I am VERY glad I visited this blog before doing any purchasing. Thank you. I will remember to wait until tank is mature enough to house such a beautiful(in my opinion) creature.
I had a blue star in my tank for over 6 months surviving nicely on mature live rock and live sand (2 year old tank). But when I moved around the aquarium furniture (live rock) in order to sccop out a territorial fish, I accidently crushed him against the glass with a live rock, from which he did not survive. He was thriving beforehand, presumingly on microscopic life of which I had plently.
I have an Orange Linkia and it was introduced into my tank when it was only up and running about 6 weeks. The starfish has thrived and is constantly all over the tank. I have had it about 6 months now and it is doing great. I have never made any attempt to feed it specifically so I assume it is eating alge and microscopic animals. I think the key is good water quality and a steady temperature.