What does a starfish eat?

I have a blue starfish that I've had since early February and it looks like it is slowly starving. I have it in an established reef tank, but I'm not sure if I should be feeding it something special or not. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

If it is a Linkia they have requirements that are unknown. Some people have the right environment for them and some don't.

Someone might who has had success with them may be able to help by describing their feeding routine.

Good luck.

 

The most important question: is it a true starfish or a brittle/serpent type star?

 

I had the same problem with one I had. It didn't live long, don't know why. I was told that the red linkia was the better way to go, but never tryed. You could try giving it a piece of clam.

 

i have high phophates and alot of algae in my 46 and it loves it!

 

Its definitely a blue Linkia starfish

 

i believe they feed off of the bacteria on your live rock. They are fairly hard to keep because they require tanks with a large bacterial population and ones that are pretty mature. This usually mens having a large amount of live rock for it to feed on

 

I think it's on the last leg, fat and plump when I got now it's looking pretty anorexic. Just wish the lfs wouldn't have said they were easy to keep.

 

I remember when I used to conch fish in the off season with traps we used cut up horseshoe crabs for bait. If we in an area with starfish, they would go crazy for it and the traps were covered in them. Most starfish as scavengers as they pretty much tend to eat whatever is around.

 

I did find this write up..

While it is not known exactly what these sea stars eat in the wild, they have been observed grazing on algal films, microcrustaceans and organic/bacterial films in aquaria. Or, as one German source puts it, they are "scum suckers." The larger the aquarium, the more live rock and the better the chances are that the animal may find enough to eat. This species does not appear to be predatory on stuff we paid good money for like most sea stars, especially the notorious green brittle star (Ophiarachna incrassata).

Dr. Rob Toonen has written a nice article on them.
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/toonen.htm