Reef safe starfish?

[MandarinFish]

My LFS, Tropical Paradise, had some stunning purple starfish which seemed to not move around alot. Not sure what they eat, but they were very stationary and didn't hunt through the DSB, hide a lot, etc.

Are there any starfish which are reef-safe... as in, they don't:

* eat your sand bed

* eat your clams

* eat your sleeping fish

* eat corals

Are Linkia's any good? Toonen seems to like those exclusively...

Any others?

 

[reefsnreptiles1]

Linkia's are safe.

The purple starfish you are referring probably Tamaria Stria. They seems to be a lot of these showing up in local fish stores recently. They are often being sold as purple linkias (which they are not).
They can be identified by their orange feet (true linkias will have white feet). They seem to be fairly reef safe. However, there have been reports recently of them eating clams.


Hope this helps!

Brian

 

[reefsnreptiles1]

Oops. That should say "There seems". Not "they". Guess I should have tried the preview button that time. :lol: