Observational Study of Fromia Starfish Species Fromia indica, Fromia milliporella, Fromia pacifica

livinlifeinBKK · Oct 30, 2022

I changed their diet due to weight loss either due to the diet itself or the frequency with which it was being fed. They appear to be doing much better now! Wondering if a study like this would be publishable in print in any reefkeeping magazine. I'd be extremely proud to author an article worthy of being printed and published. If anyone has any connections to a magazine or similar source of information aside from the internet please contact me.

sixty_reefer · Oct 30, 2022

livinlifeinBKK said:
I changed their diet due to weight loss either due to the diet itself or the frequency with which it was being fed. They appear to be doing much better now! Wondering if a study like this would be publishable in print in any reefkeeping magazine. I'd be extremely proud to author an article worthy of being printed and published. If anyone has any connections to a magazine or similar source of information aside from the internet please contact me.

Publishing it in R2R is a start,

livinlifeinBKK · Oct 30, 2022

sixty_reefer said:
Publishing it in R2R is a start,

I agree with that...I'd just be overwhelmingly proud to have something of mine in print after working so hard on it but I'll definitely publish on R2R regardless

A Young Reefer · Oct 30, 2022

livinlifeinBKK said:
I changed their diet due to weight loss either due to the diet itself or the frequency with which it was being fed. They appear to be doing much better now! Wondering if a study like this would be publishable in print in any reefkeeping magazine. I'd be extremely proud to author an article worthy of being printed and published. If anyone has any connections to a magazine or similar source of information aside from the internet please contact me.

What’s the current diet?

livinlifeinBKK · Oct 30, 2022

A Young reefer said:
What’s the current diet?

DM me

LisaAP · Oct 30, 2022

When you say you’ve changed their diet, does that mean you’re target feeding them? Have you seen them consume any sponges from the live rock?

livinlifeinBKK · Oct 30, 2022

LisaAP said:
When you say you’ve changed their diet, does that mean you’re target feeding them? Have you seen them consume any sponges from the live rock?

The live rock I've been getting is covered with coralline algae but unfortunately I rarely get a sponge on them so yeah I've been spot feeding them although once in a while when a piece does come in with an encrusting sponge they feed on it

LisaAP · Oct 30, 2022

livinlifeinBKK said:
The live rock I've been getting is covered with coralline algae but unfortunately I rarely get a sponge on them so yeah I've been spot feeding them although once in a while when a piece does come in with an encrusting sponge they feed on it

So after they’ve moved on the sponges have been eaten entirely or are smaller? Are they actively eating the oysters?

What have you tried feeding that they didn’t eat?

Thanks for taking the time me to study these starfish, all observations (good or bad) is helpful.

livinlifeinBKK · Oct 30, 2022

LisaAP said:
So after they’ve moved on the sponges have been eaten entirely or are smaller? Are they actively eating the oysters?

What have you tried feeding that they didn’t eat?

Thanks for taking the time me to study these starfish, all observations (good or bad) is helpful.

They seem to take the pigment out of the sponges so they'll turn from purplish to whitish after they've eaten and yes, they actively eat a variety of foods that give off a strong scent including Masstick notably. However, just because they're attracted to the food doesn't mean that they're able to digest it or that it provides adequate nutrition. They don't turn down much, although I haven't attempted to feed a wide variety of foods because I think it's important to spend a reasonable amount of time assessing the impact of each food source on health which means feeding the same diet for an extended period of time. One of the stars I've had for 9 months now and he seems to be doing ok...not great, not bad, just ok which isn't optimal but I'm hoping to turn that around...if you'd like to know more about my study, feel free to DM me...since I plan to write a report and attempt to publish it I'd prefer not to give every detail of my study publically on the forum at this point until I compose my report and post it for all to see (which I will). Like I said though, if you have any other specific questions DM me and I'd be happy to address them!

Neptune 555 · Nov 18, 2022

When do you plan on posting the report? I am following... and would like to understand the feeding... How do you even target feed them? In my tank it would be impossible for the other fish not to take any food I am trying to provide for the starfish.

LisaAP · Nov 18, 2022

I’ll second that, I would love to hear about your observations so far.

livinlifeinBKK · Nov 18, 2022

Neptune 555 said:
When do you plan on posting the report? I am following... and would like to understand the feeding... How do you even target feed them? In my tank it would be impossible for the other fish not to take any food I am trying to provide for the starfish.

Right now I'm using an isolation box to determine what foods are adequate for their nutrition (without competition from fish, crabs, etc. that'll try to steal the food) based on weight gain, time taken to right themselves after being turned over, and a couple other tests since up to now we really aren't sure what it takes to meet their nutritional requirements. Sorry it's taken so long to write up the report, i have started composing it actually but working/studying 7 days a week makes it hard to find time. I don't want to release anything prematurely and mislead anyone so I want to be at least relatively sure that the feeding regimen is adequate (which weight gain seems to be a positive indication of so far although these are relatively young stars in their aquarium lives). As far as food being stolen from them, before I started using the isolation box, healthy individuals seemed to be able to make it to the food pretty quickly and wrap their bodies around it to protect it after they begin eating to protect it from most fish (of course probably not all fish depending upon the fish species)...crabs can be a different story I've found though. This is my next challenge (feeding them without the isolation box involved). First i just need to be relatively sure their nutrition is being adequately met though.

Kasrift · Dec 1, 2022

I've been following along on all of the posts @livinlifeinBKK has been making on starfish for awhile. My daughter just LOVES them, so I bought a fromia starfish several months ago. I've tried all of the feeding as well, I even picked up the fromia and put it on top of some Cerith snail eggs that were laid on the glass. The only feeding response I get is when I put together a mixture of reef roids with live Nanno phyto (I culture it, so I always mix with this instead of tank water), oyster eggs, and Red Sea AB+. When I see the fromia on the glass (I have a fluval 32 with curved glass), I can put a little in a pipette and put it on it's legs and the starfish will expel it's stomach like it is eating.

I haven't noticed any other feeding behaviors, since I can only see if it is on the glass. However, I have noticed it pass over my tiny micro brittle stars and collonista snails, so I don't think it catches live prey. I also haven't noticed any decrease in pinaepple sponges or one of the purple sponges I have growing on a rock. I was thinking about buying PNS Yello Snow or Pro Bio since everyone mentions they eat bacterial film.

livinlifeinBKK · Dec 4, 2022

Ok guys, after this week ends i have a few weeks mostly free due to the holidays coming up and I plan to sit myself on one of the islands here and work to finish putting together my report on my findings so far although it is an ongoing study.

livinlifeinBKK · Dec 19, 2022

Gonna do some scuba diving and work on my report later this week...been recording good sized steady weight increases in the Fromia indica stars for a couple months!

Indoor Reef · Jan 9, 2023

livinlifeinBKK said:
Gonna do some scuba diving and work on my report later this week...been recording good sized steady weight increases in the Fromia indica stars for a couple months!

Been following along and wondering how the report is coming along? Keen to read your results.

livinlifeinBKK · Feb 17, 2023

For everyone who's been following I'm overjoyed to announce that my results have been very promising and i wrote an article which has just been published by UltraMarine Magazine where you can read it!

sixty_reefer · Feb 17, 2023

livinlifeinBKK said:
For everyone who's been following I'm overjoyed to announce that my results have been very promising and i wrote an article which has just been published by UltraMarine Magazine where you can read it!

That’s really good news, unfortunately it seems that we need to buy the magazine to be able to read it.