Starfish in a 10 gallon reef tank?

[Reefer_E]

I have a 10 gallon reef tank that currently has a clown fish, a candy cane coral, and a Xenia. I was looking at getting a fire and ice zoa and a star fish I found a Ehinaster spinulosus or orange starfish and was wondering if it could be in my 10 gallon.

 

[Stomatopods17]

Generally when it comes to starfish, they're 1 of 2 things;

The starfish is reef safe, but has a specialized diet we're unable to manually regulate and isn't feasible to keep long term in anything but the largest tanks that might naturally replenish it in large quantities. Your fromias, sandsifters, etc fall in this category. Linkcias to a lesser extent but very fragile and specific still.

Or,

The starfish can be fed, but it will eat and destroy anything, it will basically bleach your rock of anything sessile (your coral) and if it is an option they would eat your fish if catchable sleeping/sick. Your chocolates, Red Knobby, Biscuits, etc are this. The chocolates in my sump for feeder purposes are given little neck clams to lessen them eating each other even.

Serpents and brittle starfish are very different from traditional sea stars (more mobile and not reliant on tube feet to move, scuttling around), and happen to be safer as they're scavengers, they'll eat the same stuff you feed the rest of the tank and have no interest in stuff growing on the rock. Serpents are safe, brittles its the green ones with a bad reputation for eating fish but the rest I never seen complaints about. In a 10 I'd recommend maybe one serpent, they're not huge but they do take up a bit of surface area at the bottom, most brittles get too big.

Microbrittles are already in your tank as hitchhikers, you just haven't seen them yet. They're as omnipresent in tanks as bristleworms, you'll sometimes see an arm extend out of rocks at night.

Feather/Basket Starfish don't even look at them, they're not starfish in a traditional sense, they're crinoids and they're a big customer trap, you can count the number of individuals that had one alive for a short peroid of time on one hand.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I would not put any star into a 10 gallon, a 10 gallon is 10 inches across and 20 inches wide. Put some rock in the tank, and leaves very little sand space. You can't expect a living creature to be happy moving few inches that way, and then go back few inches again..... it will not be able to move, and would likely live a sad short life before it dies.

If you google "suggested tank size for serpent/brittle star", you will get answer of 20 up to 50 gallons. Always best to google the suggested tank size for any animal before buying it.