impulse buy mistake

Ok, so I'm pretty sure I made a mistake last night on an impulse buy. I went to the LFS for a flame angel and cleaner shrimp. Got those, but also fell in love with the beautiful blue starfish the guy was selling. He assured me it was reef-compatible and required no special care/feeding. I later researched it, and found that it was a blue linckia, which is reported not to survive often in tanks. Mine tank is a decent size with a decent amount of live rock (see signature).

Well, now that I've got him, what's your advice (other than to research better next time)? What can I do/feed him that will improve the chance of survival?

 

How old is your tank? If it's established and over a year, I would try it out. If it's younger, I would attempt to return it (probably futile) but would definitely tell the bum you're on to his little antics. Obviously, you can't trust these guys trying to make money.

 

was that from north american jjk?

 

Yeah, it was. They have great livestock at great prices, but I guess you can't really trust the advice they give you on care.

And the tank is just over 4 months old...not fully mature, I know, although the water parameters are very stable, and there is a decent amount of algae growth on the rocks.

 

they steered me away from acro's there. but after talkin to dr.frag here , im gonna go get one. they do carry very nice stuff there. good luck with thew linkia

 

There is no food you can put in that he will eat. He will eat whats on your liverock. Unfortunately the blue ones are the least hardiest ones. How long was the acclimation. It should be for at least 3 hours. The orange ones are a little better.

 

The guy at the store told me the following regarding acclimation: Don't expose it to air, just dump the water directly into your tank.

Well, I'm no expert, but I knew that to be wrong. So I put him in a bucket with the water he came in, and gradually added tank water to the bucket. However, I only did this for about 45 minutes - again, after doing the research I know they need longer acclimation. Well, I hope he survives, and this will definitely be a lesson to me.

 

my uncle has one in his 110 non reef with about 100 lbs live rock and he's been fine in there for over a year the only thing i dont like is you only see him at night

 

Wow that is a lot of livestock for a 4month old tank. I would try to take him back and see if you can get credit at the store. My tank is 5 years old and I wouldn't attempt a blue star, they are so delicate.

 

my LFS sold me a blue star and was dead before i got it home. luckily i have good standing with them and they took it back at full price. Actually i traded for a brittle star. (That has found its way into one of my large pieces of LR and i can only see his legs in the holes) Best of luck with yours