Linckia laevigata (red)

hi folks,

so iv had this little critter for almost a year now, took all the steps needed to acclimate it correctly and did a load of research before buying it. during the first few months it was very active climbing on my rock work and glass. as of late however it has become some what more lethargic. it wont move from the smae spot for days. it appears in good health (no grey areas or signs of damage). i had to recently move i to avoid it getting squashed by a frag i wanted to place in my tank and i see it moving back to shaded areas.

i was wondering if this behavior is normal, was it active in the begging because it was getting use to my system or is something wrong with her?

my greatest fear is that she is slowly starving and i have tried placing a small nori piece under her once with little result.

my system is a 450 l tank, no fuge but abondant live rock, the system was about 1 year old when i placed the star in and i leave one of the sides of the tank uncleaned for algae propagation.

ill try to get some pics up to show you she still has a vibrant orange/red color.

thank you for the tips
-jeff-

 

Jeff,

Is your star fish moving at night and then returning to the same spot or are you sure it never moves?

 

I have had one for the past 9 months or so and find that it is most active at night. Mine does not return to the same spot at night but is always under a rock or wrapped around something during the day. Unfortunately when i made the purchase i was told that they are easy and do well. I have since learned that most do not survive past a year, although the red ones do better than the blue. my understanding is that there is very little info on their diet and therefore it appears to be blind luck for them to be able to get the required nutrition out of our tanks. I don not scrape my back or side tank walls and have heard (i.e. potential misinformation) that they enjoy the micro algae and other debris that grows and gets attached there. I certainly hope that others will join this thread and share information because he is one of my favorite additions to my tank. I have a small CUC and perhaps this is why mine is doing well. He appears to be a scavenger, not only on the sides of the tank but particularly in the crevases of the rock work.

 

ill keep an eye on it during the night, for now its on my sand bed near the glass and there is no shaded areas around and above it.

so if it chose this place as its "home" it would not make much sense since i thought they preferred shaded areas during the day.

dienerman, about food competition. my CUC consist of;

3 or 4 juvenile Turbo snails and 3 Tectus fenestratus
3 hermit crabs, 2 Calcinus laevimanus (one of which large) and one Ciliopagurus strigatus
1 skunk shrimp.

i feed my tank about an ice cube of the blended fish food i make once a day and twice every other day.

 

Thanks for the CUC response. Seems like a we are roughly the same. My link likes the shade during the day, either under a rock or occasionally right up at the top of the tank under the lip of the rim. Do you scrape all the sides of your tank or just the front?

 

the two shorter walls of the tank are left untouched. but iv never seen it on there to be honest

 

Keep me updated on how he does. Hopefully we can get a few more people to share information and their experience. I really want to keep my Link alive and healthy over the long term. If anyone who has one is watching this thread, please keep it going!!