Anyone Have Success With a Blue Linckia?

[livinlifeinBKK]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone here has had success with a blue linckia starfish. I've had an orange linckia in a nano for about 4 months now and he's doing well which I credit mainly to using live ocean rock but from what I've seen and heard the blues are even more difficult. Has anyone here kept a blue linckia before? What was your experience? Here's a pic and short video of my orange one

 

[vetteguy53081]

While they can be raised, often they are not long term for most hobbyist due to water quality problems or starvation

 

[Steve and his Animals]

On top of the food issue, Linckia species get large over time. Not that many people have luck keeping them that long. 4 months may seem like a good amount of time, but it can take much longer for a sea star to starve. I would stick to the one you have, no point in potentially creating too much competition so they BOTH starve.

 

[katonge]

How do you know if your orange star is doing well or not? Like what would be the first signs you would see that it health was declining?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

How do you know if your orange star is doing well or not? Like what would be the first signs you would see that it health was declining?

In most cases, the first symptom people notice is the star dropping legs (typically caused by starvation). Sometimes you'll find issues like the star starting to visibly deteriorate (looking like they're disintegrating in places or like they've been attacked by something), but that's typically from disease (as I understand it).

 

[Dburr1014]

Better off sticking to serpant stars. I have a red one myself. He's a great cuc member.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

How do you know if your orange star is doing well or not? Like what would be the first signs you would see that it health was declining?

They start disintegrating and aren't very active when they start going downhill

 

[Caruso86]

Mine has been in my tank around a year and seems to be doing quite well.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Health of starfish and urchins is easy to determine by how quickly they can react/move. A healthy star fish should be able move and flip itself over fairly quickly. If you notice them moving slower than usual after falling off the wall or rock and getting back slower chances are they are not doing well. If they cannot upright them selves or appear deflated they are very sick and dying.

Without direct feedings a linkia will not survive in anything other than massive tanks with lots of live rock. I have attempted a few blue linkias but never had one last more than 6 months even in a 15yr old 265g. Ive been able to keep reds, and smaller linkia as long as 3 years but they still seem to pass before any other inverts or brittle stars.

 

[vetteguy53081]

These are stars that will challenge the most experienced hobbyists and in many cases short lived due to starvation as they search through required fine sand for free-floating microbes and do not adapt well to changes in water quality especially salinity, ph and even temperature

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

These are stars that will challenge the most experienced hobbyists and in many cases short lived due to starvation as they search through required fine sand for free-floating microbes and do not adapt well to changes in water quality especially salinity, ph and even temperature

Although they feed on biofilm mostly, I noticed mine also scavenges for food after finding him eating a fish that had just died

 

[JMacedo]

I have two in my tank, one has been there for the past four years and the other one for just one year. The difference in size is huge! I think having a mature tank helps.

 

[Tired]

Until you've had yours for a year with no signs of deterioration, don't consider yourself successful yet. A year is about the minimum time to tell if a starfish is actually not starving.

Linckias probably just shouldn't be collected. I'd wager at least 99% of them will starve, since they need to go in a huge, heavily established tank.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Until you've had yours for a year with no signs of deterioration, don't consider yourself successful yet. A year is about the minimum time to tell if a starfish is actually not starving.

Linckias probably just shouldn't be collected. I'd wager at least 99% of them will starve, since they need to go in a huge, heavily established tank.

Not saying I'm successful...just that he seems to be doing fine so far...a year seems like an awfully long time to go without food so I'm not sure about that time bracket but I started feeding him individually last week in case he isn't finding enough food

 

[Tired]

Starfish have very slow metabolisms. They can actually last a long time, as in over six months, with little to no food. What happens with linckias is that they sometimes scrape by for awhile on what little bits of food they can manage, giving the illusion that they're doing well.
If it was as simple as feeding them, they'd do just fine, but it's not. We aren't even entirely sure what linckias eat, last I checked.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Starfish have very slow metabolisms. They can actually last a long time, as in over six months, with little to no food. What happens with linckias is that they sometimes scrape by for awhile on what little bits of food they can manage, giving the illusion that they're doing well.
If it was as simple as feeding them, they'd do just fine, but it's not. We aren't even entirely sure what linckias eat, last I checked.

I'm pretty sure some do scavenge...I found mine on a dead fish one day pretty obviously trying to eat it...I would've left him to it but was worried the dead fish would cause an ammonia spike

 

[Tired]

I've seen pictures of one eating an asterina star. It's still not clear what they eat, and it's entirely possible that they'll eat something but not be able to get all the nutrients they need from it. I hope yours does well, but you definitely shouldn't be buying another one. Frankly, almost nobody should.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I've seen pictures of one eating an asterina star. It's still not clear what they eat, and it's entirely possible that they'll eat something but not be able to get all the nutrients they need from it. I hope yours does well, but you definitely shouldn't be buying another one. Frankly, almost nobody should.

No, I definitely won't be getting another anytime soon at least...I'm happy taking care of the one I have

 

[JMacedo]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone here has had success with a blue linckia starfish. I've had an orange linckia in a nano for about 4 months now and he's doing well which I credit mainly to using live ocean rock but from what I've seen and heard the blues are even more difficult. Has anyone here kept a blue linckia before? What was your experience? Here's a pic and short video of my orange one View attachment 2658839

Your starfish does not look like a linckia to me... more like a Fromia Indica. I have had a couple of Fromia Indica and gave them away as I caught them climbing on top of my tuxedo urchins and deploying their stomachs inside the urchins and killing them. In Thailand they usually sell red Linckias with 5 arms and the cheaper weird ones with six.

 

[MtnDewMan]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone here has had success with a blue linckia starfish. I've had an orange linckia in a nano for about 4 months now and he's doing well which I credit mainly to using live ocean rock but from what I've seen and heard the blues are even more difficult. Has anyone here kept a blue linckia before? What was your experience? Here's a pic and short video of my orange one View attachment 2658839

I kept them in the distant past. But they were to keep my harlequin shrimp pair alive