Linka stars?

[hammerhead911]

Can someone give the pros and cons of the blue and orange linka stars as they relate to a FOWLR tank. I have a 65 gallon with wet/dry, protien skimmer, and in tank fuge. See profile for fish inhabitants. Thanks in advance.

 

[steve-s]

A very poor prospect. These types of stars generally do quite poorly in most reef tanks. They need rather large set ups with plenty of live rock and a well matured system. Loosely speaking one star for every 100 gal of actual tank space. They primarily eat slime alga and bacteria, they cannot be target fed.

For the type of tank you have, I would suggest a black or orange brittle or banded serpent star. They will need some place to hide so a small bit of rock would be advisable.

Cheers
Steve

 

[DragonForce]

Pros: None besides the fact they look "cool" which is subjective becuase I think serpent stars IMO are the coolest and serve a useful purpose.

Cons: They need exceptional water conditions, target feeding, and are short lived in the home aquarium.

 

[seaham358]

I think Steve covered the points well. I had one in my 125 reef for about 18 months and it slowly starved over time. Not a good choice for most tanks. And I tried target feedign and it did not help becaue they eat micro algaes.
Serpent stars are cool, I have one of them now.

 

[macman7010]

linkia stars are for the large public aquariums only in my books