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starfish identification

You can get dried seaweed though. Ask Chris if this would work.

Thorny stars (Echinaster echinophorus - not to be confused with knobby stars) are my favorite. There is a cute video in Serendipity's thread showing how brightly colored they are but many of the photos of my octos include a thorny. They are carion eaters naturally (in spite of what some of the literature says) and do very well in with an octopus. The bonus is they are very day active and can be bright, bright orange. I have several and have only lost one. That one was a mystery an I have voiced musings as to the content of octopus saliva possibly being the cause. The star that disintegrated was in Beldar's tank. The tank has little lighting (designed for nocturnals) so there was not much algae available but I have kept one in that tank for over a year in the past. I move the resident thorny before Bel arrived because there would not be sufficient food in an empty tank and put one back (not sure if it was the same or a different one) when the tank was reoccupied. I have not tried another in that tank but the serpent and peppermint shrimp continue to do fine even after Bel died.

I took a picture of the knobby in Maya's tank for you to make a comparison but I don't think yours is a knobby based on the underside in the photo. I am thinking sand sifting star (Archaster angulatus) as I look back at the photos and they are known to die pretty quickly from starvation. I had one I thought was doing pretty well once until the pencil urchin started eating it. It may have been dying but pencils can get aggressive if there is not enough plant matter and the tank lacked that food. It is another animal I will not try again.

After 4 years in my reef tank, my common stars are definitely starving. I have moved them to Maya's tank where there is far more natural food but have yet to try the dried algae. The knobby may eventually suffer the same fate (As I mentioned, I did not mean to get a knobby) but has plenty to eat now. You have me thinking about about growing a small algae tank to create food. The thorny's on the other hand do not seem to have a problem living on the octo leftovers, Cyclop-eze and mysis fed to the tank and are the first critters (beating out the brissles) to find large scaps if one of the octos does not eat a piece of shrimp. Do not put them with decorative clams though or they will eventually eat them.
 

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I read some starfish do okay with algae wafers. ever try that? I have some but have never had anything I bought them for eat them. On the other hand, I have not tried them with starfish. I will put one in the tank tomorrow when I see my knobby on the glass to see what it thinks (I have the kind you can stick to the glass - they are messy but it is worth the experiment - I do need to check to see if these are fresh or marine though :oops:).

No go on the experiment tomorrow as I knew it was spirulina but did not remember if it was purchased for a fresh or saltwater tank (I only have one fresh left and only because Ike - Silver Dollar - is likely to out survive me). Unfortunately spirulina is freshwater.
 
I picked up some wafers for 7,000 won. little less than 7$. The star fish is eating it now.

I found this site. It's give the area distribution and feeding of the star fish
It suggests that that type, the Pentaceraster alveolatus, feeds off of detritus largely, and dead animals. so I did a search on detritus.
and came up with organic material suspended in water. called marine snow.

So I did a search for that. and found that you can buy it for feeding fish.

It says it's largely for "soft and stone corals, anemones, tube worms, sponges, tunicates, clams, and other filter feeders."
Does not say anything about starfish.
What do you guys think?
 
Another word for detritus is poop :yuck: (but it included rotting fish/creatures). In other words, don't eat yellow snow :wink:

Do some reading on reviews of the brand you are thinking about getting (likely, the wafers are all you need to add to the tank, there should be enough leftovers and preprocessed from your critters not to add to the nitrate factory). Three Little Fishes is the most common brand labled as Marine Snow and most reviews I have seen (and I used it for awhile) suggest it is less than worthless. I like Cyclop-eze (engineered shrimp) to feed rather a an unknown mixture or look at some of the phyto (plant) and zoo (animal) plankton that lists what is it made from.
 

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