Blue Linkia Starfish

[tpsmith11]

Looking for some ideas on feeding a Blue Linkia Starfish. I have had one of these starfish in my aquarium for 2.5 years and have never fed it directly. I had tried a couple of times initially but gave up when it was apparent the starfish was so slow moving and seemingly uniterested in small pieces of food that it was a wasted effort. In all cases the current blew the food away before the starfish was able to make an attempt at eating the food. I have not been concerned to this point since literature I have read says the starfish eats minute matter such as algae, etc. so I assumed the starfish was getting nutrition on its own. However, recently it has become apparent that the starfish appears to be shrinking in thickness which leads me to believe that it is not getting the food it needs. Does anyone have experience in feeding these starfish? Thanks,

Tom

 

[ChrisRD]

I've never kept one, but always heard/read the same thing about the algae.

I'll move this into the GRD where you will probably get more responses.

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

I have a brittle star that I had never fed until I read somewhere that they will eat fish if they aren't fed regularly. I was losing small fish every once in a while so I decided to try and feed it.

I have to turn all my current off to feed it, or the same thing happens, it blows away. Now after turning all pumps off I take a piece of flounder or shrimp and after feeding all the fish I hold it down to it with a pair of long pincers. It takes it, but I have to watch that it doesn't drop it before it gets it up towards its mouth.

If the linkia primarily eats algae you could get a sheet of nori and pin it in the tank near it and see if it takes any.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Anonymous]

I've had a blue linkia for years. I have never fed it, largely because I hve no idea what it eats. I do notice, however, that when I get a new piece of LR my boy Blue is all over it.

 

[drbdc]

They get thier food from the water column. You will see them hanging one leg off the glass many times to get food. 2 years with a starfish is great (except brittle and serpents). That is really the reason so many are against having them in captivity. They basically slowly starve to death.