new star fish: bad purchase

I think I should have made more research before to buy this one. Yesterday, I got a little starfish at the store: protoreaster nodosus
Beacause it stay realy small, I thought it could be a good invert to add to my little nano tank (about 15g).
Back home, I made more reaserch and found out that these starfish normaly feed on sponge and beacause the do not find enough in aquarium, the die from starvation after a while. :-[
What to do now? If I bring it back to the store, it will die in someone helse tank anyway. Is there a way to maintain those starfish alive and happy?

 

Chocolate chip stars are also not reef safe. They will eat corals as well.

 

Unless you are going to buy sponges for the Star than the answer would be no. Taking it back to the store is really the only answer. If the star Dies in the LFS tank then perhaps they will not bring that type of Star fish into the store again. Not buying something is the only way to get LFS to stop selling something.

There are only a couple of Star fish that can live in a captive environment. Serpent, Brittle, and some sand sifters. But in my opinion Star fish are best left in the ocean

J

 

well, I think I'll bring it back to the store. realy sad story.

thanks for the info.

 

The star you mentioned is commonly known as a chocolate chip star but the characteristics you describe don't really fit that star. I often get them bigger than the size of my palm (and I am a big guy) so they don't really stay small and they will eat any sessile invert so a diet of sponge doesn't really fit.

As inwall said they are definitely not reef safe. Keeping yours well fed is the least of your worries as they will eat any marine foods I have ever offered so there's no problem there.

If you have a fish only tank, I'd keep it. If it's in a reef, it's time to go back.

 

They make good food for the Harlequin shrimp thats about the only reason , I'd add on to my tank.