I Hate my Starfish

That depends on the size of the starfish. Anything from 1-2 weeks has been my experience so far. The starfish is in suspended animation while it's being consumed so it's not dead at all. I have never seen anything else go after the starfish while the shrimp is eating it but if they did, the shrimp would chase the animal away anyhow.

 

Update: The Chocolate Chip Sea Star has a new home. One of my daughter's high school classmates has a salt water FOWLR tank, and she took possession of Chippy.
After I get a replacement anemone and she settles in, I may be ready to try something new in a starfish. Or not.
Any suggestions on what to get or where to get it?

 

I know they are dull and boring to most, but I like Fiji sand-sifting starfish. No problems with them and other tank mates and they help to keep the substrate healthy. I used to have serpent star or brittlestar. I know one or several are not good for reef tanks, but there are some that are fine and quite beautiful and interesting. Which, I don't remember, as it was many years ago. I believe it may have been brittlestars, red.

 

I have an orange linkia... I love it. I'd like to get a purple one as well... but my LFS can't seem to find any.

 

Try something I know will last and you can watch eat. Either a medium sized brittle star or a fancy serpent star. They are both scavengers and meat eaters. You can train them to come out when they smell the food and feed them by hand or by utensil

They are not as pretty to look at as that orage linkia, but they will live for a lot longer in your tank.

Jim

 

I have two red/white serpents in my tank too...but I hardly ever see them....once in a while I see their arms sticking out when I put mysis in the tank...they tend to lurk in the rocks more.

I have another serpent in my other tank which comes out more often...but probably cuz there is less rock in there

 

czieler, Diver, Apollo'sowner: You folks are mind readers. Those are great suggestions and are three of the stars that I thought would be a good addition.