Best choice/preference of starfish for a reef tank?

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runway1

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Joined
Jan 4, 2005
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I currently have one, med-large brittle star who stays pretty hidden during the day but is fascinating nonetheless when feeding. Wondering, what would be a good choice for a more colorful, visible starfish in my 55 gal reef? Thanks all.
 
Red Fromia I think is supposed to be reef safe. The linkia stars are as well but some are difficult to keep. The blue linkia has an abyssmal rate of survival.
 
Linkia and sandsifting are the only ones I know of. Sandsifters eat pods, not really a good choice. I have one, he doesnt bug the mandarin, but the pod population suffers from him presence.
 
Blue Linkia starfish are known to be reef safe but are very hard to keep. They need a day long drip acclimation, and even then any shift in salinity can cause for them to drop. The serpent and brittle stars tend to be the hardiest reef safe choice.

There are some other stars that are known to be reef safe, but most command unreasonablly high prices.
 
Same here the color would liven up most tanks. Althought the description sounds like it eats the copepods in the live rock. But if you don't have anything else that edepends on them in your tank you should be ok right???
 
Stick with bottom dwelling species. CC stars and others like it can climb the rockwork. They can topple rocks and will park right on top of soft corals and eat away. I have a sand sifter in my 72 and it stays on/in the substrate.
 
Bottom dwellers would be like serpent and brittle stars. Bery hardy and easy to care for. And great for eating extra food on the floor and within the rocks.
 
i have a choclate chip star and he hasnt botherd any of toadstools so i have heard they are and are not reef safe depending on who you ask
 
Fluff, you are right on. I forgot about the brittle and serpent stars. I just got two myself. They hide a lot though. It depends on if you want them for show or not. If you want to see the starfish, go with something like the linka. Otherwise I would totally agree about the serpent starts.

Every book I have consulted says Chocolate Chip Starfish are not reef safe. They will eat types of coral.
 
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