Blue Linckia Starfish and Cleaner Shrimp Help

Yes indeed

 

I have read that the most common way to kill a linkia is to add topoff water too fast or near them. Similar to a std sand sifter they are tuff to keep goin. Perhaps with a refuge and freq sand additions. I have one and it looks healthier than when I bought it... kind of regret that now. The fish store insisted on bringing them in for me and they were dead w/in a day. I told them if they were going to bring any more in - keep it in a bucket w an airstone and add 1/2 cup water every hr. that was quite a few weeks ago but I know I am not out of the woods yet. acclimated for 3hrs. I guess time will tell.

 

I have a cleaner shrimp and a blue linkia - both were added to my tank about 6 weeks ago. My tank has been up and running for about a year, reef & fish but only about 50 gallon and just fluro lighting, very basic. Within the first week, my cleaner shrimp attacked one leg of my starfish and made a mess of it but it healed really well without treatment and now they are perfectly happy together. I don't treat them specially and have had no signs of difficulty with my starfish.
Hell, go ahead and give it a try. They are both soooo great to watch.

 

Skip the linka....

Get a skunk cleaner...or two...or three. Maybe a blood/fire shrimp to go with it.

Shrimp are fun things to have in tank.

 

agreed, skunk cleaners are very sociable and they'll even jump on your hand and try to clean it when your working on things, their a opportunistic scavenger and will eat leftover food or catch mysis and things like that at feeding time, they'll also graze on seaweed or veggies you use to feed tangs

fire shrimp (the bright red ones) serve basically the same purpose but a slightly larger appetite as they'll go after some different worms in the tank as well that can be harmful so definetly a cool thing to have, not nearly as sociable though.

coral banded shrimp are territorial and can/will attack anything that gets close to them just cause they seem like their always ticked off little mutant 1/2 shrimp 1/2 crab freaks

Linkias are hard to keep, I have a friend thats had one for 18 months in his 210g but the tank is around 5yrs old and has it where even the water changes are completley automated on it.
Personally I have red thorny starfish in several tanks and they do great, very hardy and great scavengers, haven't seen them touch any corals or anenomes in any of the tanks

 

I can o ly echo what others have said, Linkia Laevigata (blue linkia) isn't recommended for any tank.

However the orange Linkia ( forgot specie name) is supposedly a very easy animal to maintain in a typical reef setup, might be worth looking into that, they are every bit as beautiful as the blue

 

My girlfriend works at SeaWorld as an educator, and I have been stealing her literature, and helping her study. About a week ago, we read from SeaWorld's Zoology Department that their dissections showed no actual difference in colored Linckia Laevigata. The Linckia Laevigata comes in different blues, and oranges and gets its color from a blue pigment (linckiacyanin) and yellow carotenoids. This results in deep blue, light blue, orange, etc. With the addition of utilizing external reproduction (floating egg & fertilization), an orange linckia could easily breed with a blue linckia. However, it is not CONCRETE that breeding of different pigment amounts results in mutant colors. Basically, there's no color chart

I've had a blue linckia for months now... very cool to watch. I also have a fire shrimp who doesn't clean but will climb on my hand when I feed him everyday. And for some reason, he takes to frozen silver sides over any other food. He's funny as hell, but not very social (unless it's feedin' time).

Cheers,
-Tank Boy

 

they eat leftover fish food and parasites and dead skin off of fish. Also, I put mine in a 3 week old tank and they have been thriving for a long time. You can add cleaners to a new tank. I recommend the skunk cleaners, as they do the best job.

 

Yeah, my only real impulse buy was a very large blue linkia star. It died right quick (three weeks). Expert care is required. I did get a pic of it though. You can see the size of it compared to a standard sized CC star in my avatar.