Starfish - Which ones?

[Shultz]

Thanks for the tip! There isnt that much info on acclimatising.....

I don't have an corals atm so having the lights out for a few hours shouldn't hurt what is is in the list below? the moonlights could be on or off as nessasary?

I thought I'd take a few months to get all the fish/inverts in & be happy & stable with that before having to watch water levels more closely for corals

I may well place an order with clams.co.uk middle/end of this week, just gotta make sure their serpents are not green 8O

Cheers Shelton.

 

[steve-s]

Thanks for the tip! There isnt that much info on acclimatising.....

General acclimation

Drip acclimation

I don't have an corals atm so having the lights out for a few hours shouldn't hurt what is is in the list below? the moonlights could be on or off as nessasary?

Having lights on during acclimation really depends on the animal. For the most part if MH I'd definately use caution. You should still be able to keep actinics or moonlights on though.

When releasing a new fish after a proper QT time, I'd be wary placing them into an unlit tank. Depending on what else is in there you might just end up feeding something else

Cheers
Steve

 

[Shultz]

Thanks for the links Steve, I had read the second one & that's basically what I do apart from its in my main tank as I have no sump.

No MH here, just the 1 twin T5 for now

I shall make sure when I buy a star that its on my day off so I have plenty of time to acclimate it properly

Cheers Shelton.

 

[AquaBear]

I tried this yesterday with my new Tiger-Stripe Serpent Star and so far it seems to have worked. He got acclimated pretty smoothly, I think. I spread it out over 6 hours. Thanks for the tip!

--Aquabear

 

[Shultz]

Glad to hear that AquaBear, might see what the LFS has thursday

Cheers Shelton.

 

[AquaBear]

I've since added a chocolate chip star and an orange linkia, both using this method. None of the kids have had any trouble adjusting. Now if I could just find a blue linkia (they seem pretty scarce at the moment). How cool, an orange and a blue....Bronco colors!

--Aquabear

 

[Shultz]

Heheheheh, you are having fun there atm!

I still haven't added a starfish as of yet, the LFS did have a nice little orange one, so I might be tempted at the weekend when I have more time to deal with it

Cheers Shelton.

 

[AquaBear]

I'm speechless. My orange Linkia was doing so well, and then I come home today and found three sizeable gashes on it. It's all crinkled up and looks dead. I suspect one of my hermits is the culprit, because it's the only living thing near it. And I just caught it on top of one of my snails, like it was attacking it, so I grabbed it and threw it to the other end of the tank.

I thought hermits were relatively harmless to stars? Anyone else ever notice hermits being aggressive? I'm not having this...I'll yank every crab right out of there first and pop them like bubble wrap.

--Aquabear

 

[steve-s]

If your speaking of the blue's sin your sig line, then it's a possibility. The reds are much less likely if true scarlets. For the most part all crabs are opportunistic feeders but they could just be guilty by association. If the star was already damaged or necrosing they would have simpley been doing what they where placed there for, waste control. The affected area of the star could have been caused by many things.

Cheers
Steve

 

[jennymit21]

sorry .. not trying to hijack the thread but someone said earlier that their blue linkia was easy? i though i read somewhere that the blue's were for "experts only" and were difficult? anyone else have input? i'm researching to set up my first sw and i love the blue's looks....just don't want to kill anything off as an inexperienced sw newb just because i like the looks of something. thanks.

sorry about your orange, aquabear. Is he gonna be ok?

 

[Shultz]

I'm speechless. My orange Linkia was doing so well, and then I come home today and found three sizeable gashes on it. It's all crinkled up and looks dead. I suspect one of my hermits is the culprit, because it's the only living thing near it. And I just caught it on top of one of my snails, like it was attacking it, so I grabbed it and threw it to the other end of the tank.

I thought hermits were relatively harmless to stars? Anyone else ever notice hermits being aggressive? I'm not having this...I'll yank every crab right out of there first and pop them like bubble wrap.

--Aquabear

Ouch! can't answer the hermits part of the question, just remember inocent until proven guilty mate!

fingers crossed he makes a full recovery......

Cheers Shelton.

 

[steve-s]

sorry .. not trying to hijack the thread but someone said earlier that their blue linkia was easy?

Farthest thing from the truth. Linkia's in general are quite hard to keep and need a rather large mature reef system before attempting one. Some might get lucky with less but it is the exception, not the rule.

Cheers
Steve

 

[AquaBear]

Hey gang....no, he didn't make it. :-( There wasn't anything wrong with him that I could tell, but I'm certain he didn't do it to himself. Plus, later that evening, I saw this same crab on top of one of my snails, so I'm convinced I've got an aggressive crab in there.

And I have to agree with Steve-S. When I was looking up some other references on-line in reference to Linkias, I read a statistic that said Linkias have an average 90% mortality rate within days/weeks of capture. That may be a little on the high side, but still raises an eyebrow. If I'd have read that, I think I might have thought twice about getting one. You would think by now I'd learn not to take LFS sales person's advice on how easy things are to keep.

By the way, I didn't mean to hijack the thread either...I started by thanking whoever it was for the advice on acclimating stars.

--Aquabear