Trained Blue Linckia?

[goosemans]

Difficult to keep inverts have always peaked my interest. More so than fish and corals at the moment. I read up as much as I could regarding the blue linckia diet. As you probably all know, there is basically no information about how to keep one alive.

I thought I’d give blue sea star a try and try some methods to get linckia to eat. I tried to introduce food next to him whenever I saw him such as: algae tabs, chopped shrimp, mysis shrimp (variety of foods). Every time either other cuc would get to it first, or he would just peace out and go somewhere else.

My guess was he just didn’t understand what I was giving him was food in the first place. So I bought a fish acclimation box, and any time I saw him out within reach, I’d carefully pluck him off and put him in acrylic jail. I put a variety of foods as mentioned above and boom. Finally went for chopped shrimp. Then the next day he went for an algae tablet. Took him several hours to finally “latch onto the food” but over the course of several days it became less and less time from when I’d put him in jail and when he would finally start eating something. Today is the first time in three months he booked it to an algae tablet I dropped into the tank. Very proud of him for finally figuring it out. I’ve only had him for a few months so I can’t say for certain he will live long term. Pic of him eating today

 

[dthom]

Wow, very exciting! Interested in seeing how it does long term. Good job!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The starfish is looking pretty plump from what I can tell, so that's a good start (definitely better than average). Offering a variety of foods in a contained environment is a great start and an idea I've suggested before.

Some info on them that may be useful though:

Personally, I currently recommend against trying to keep a tropical, true starfish (Asteroid) species, particularly biofilm-feeding species, except for Aquilonastra stars.

That said, if you're really determined to try keeping them anyway, I'd strongly suggest setting up an Aquilonastra farm, a cryptic refugium to farm sponges, and possibly a colonial tunicate farm as well (all of these should be separate from the Linckia's tank so they can't get to the farm and ruin the "crop") - the Linckias feed on these (they presumably emulate biofilms to some degree), and the most successful Linckia keeping I've seen have always involved at least one of these aspects (typically the Aquilonastra stars).

With Aquilonastra stars alone, I've seen people keep them 2-3 years; with the cryptic refugium sponges involved too, the longest I've heard is ~4 years. Still not good by my calculations, but arguably acceptable if they really only live a decade.

For those who are truly determined to keep true starfish against my recommendation, here are some signs to watch for to help track starfish health:

One important thing to keep in mind with foods for these guys - just because they eat it, doesn't mean it's meeting their nutritional needs; it might be, but it might not be. With how long it seems to take these guys to starve, unless you're monitoring their health closely, you might not notice if it's not meeting their needs until it's too late.

Some ways to potentially gauge the health of the starfish that may be useful:
1 - Visual: is anything visually wrong with the specimen? (From what I know of starfish, these cues are generally pretty obvious if they're there at all - if the starfish is disintegrating, there's something wrong). [Edit: you may also be able to tell if the star is looking lean/gaunt or full/puffy; gaunt is generally not good.]
2 - Weight: is the specimen putting on or maintaining weight (generally healthy), or is it losing weight (under most circumstances, this would be unhealthy)?
3 - Size/Length: if it's not already full size, is the specimen growing? Is it shrinking (either from weight loss, disease, limb loss, etc.)?
4 - Reproduction: is the specimen engaging in reproductive behaviors/activities (i.e. courting, nesting, spawning, etc.)? (I recognize this one is not as common of an indicator in captive starfish at this point, but there are a few instances of starfish attempting to spawn in captivity).
5 - Longevity: is the specimen relatively close to meeting, actually meeting, or exceeding their expected wild lifespan (or at least surviving for a few years - healthy), or is the specimen dead/dying prior to doing so (unhealthy)?
6 - Speed: how quickly can the specimen right itself when it's flipped over?
7 - Level of activity: how much is the specimen moving around? (Generally speaking, low activity indicates poor health; moderate activity indicates good health; and high activity indicates good health but probable stress - it could be searching for food, oxygen, etc., but it's probably not in terrible health when moving a lot).
8 - Grip strength: does the specimen have a strong hold/grip with its tube feet? (A strong grip indicates good health, a weak grip indicates poor health).
9 - Willingness to eat: is the specimen eating? (Seems obvious, but can be really hard to tell with some stars - some stars leave little trails called feeding scars through the things they're eating; sometimes you can see their everted stomachs; other times, like if they're feeding on biofilm, you may not be able to tell at all - them crawling onto visible food is a good sign they're willing to eat, but - as mentioned above - the food may or may not meet their nutritional needs).

 

[radiata]

They eat "Biofilm". That's the stuff that grows on well aged live rock.

 

[goosemans]

The starfish is looking pretty plump from what I can tell, so that's a good start (definitely better than average). Offering a variety of foods in a contained environment is a great start and an idea I've suggested before.

Some info on them that may be useful though:

thank you for the detailed information. I have cryptic section of my sump maybe I’ll rotate rubble into display as needed. That’s a good idea.

 

[JonoH]

I've had one of these for over 2 and a half years now. I think as long as your tank is mature they will do well - most probably get dropped into near new tanks though.