asterias rubens

[land locked]

Has anyone ever kept a common (sugar) starfish in their aquarium? My daughter went on vacation to Oregon, and picked what she thought was a dead starfish off the beach. She put it in a ziplock bag with no water. When she unloaded her suitcase to give it to me, we were surprised to see it was alive and suctioned to the bag. I quickly set up my hospital tank and it is alive and well. I researched all that I could and I see they eat crabs and mussles. I recently started a FOWLR tank with an adopted lunar wrasse. I was thinking about putting it in that tank. What do you all think?

 

[ccCapt]

That is a cool water species. It should be in water no warmer than 72. It won't live in the temp we keep our tanks.

 

[melosu58]

I`ve heard the same thing Larry just posted. Cool water.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Oregon? Yeah... water temp is in the 50s (at best) so it won't last long even in a room temperature tank with no heater. Sorry.

 

[land locked]

Thanks for the info. I had not put a heater in the hospital tank because I knew it was a cold water starfish, but it did not make it anyway. I was still sad and my daughter was upset that she killed it, since she already though it was dead when she picked it up. Thanks.