orange linka star fish

[stevetopthat]

Starting to detireorate???????

 

[Brenden]

These have a very poor survival rate in the aquarium. How old and large is the tank. How did you acclimate and how long have you had it? They need ideal water and large VERY stable aquarium. Sorry to say but it is as good as dead.

 

[balogh03]

yep...from what i know, no linkia can be kept in an aquarium. sorry man but i dont think there is much you can do .

 

[stevetopthat]

okay thanks for your help

 

[Brenden]

They need a lot of LR to even have a chance. I have two blue and a orange that are all over a year old. These are the only ones I have ever bought and have never lost one so it can be done. With that in mind I have 700 gallons of water and about 1100 lbs of LR. Stability is important. Very very slow acclimation is important. Unless you have at least 180gal tank that is at least a year old and 250lbs of LR I would not attempt. Even then it is not a great idea.

 

[Ashlar]

I wouldn't say _no_ linckia.. the orange are the hardiest in aquariums, and one of the members of our local club has an orange that he's had for just over two years in his 300g total volume system that is >3 years old with lots of sponges and algae for it to graze on.

That being said, I wouldn't attempt it with anything less than 250g and lots of very mature LR (the point being we don't exactly know what these guys eat, so maximum diversity may have good results.)

 

[Brenden]

I fixed my earlier post I was talking to someone on the phone and someone was in my offfice and I was on RF. At least I have my priorities right.

 

[balogh03]

i have an orange for about one, almost two years, but i am expecting it to die farily soon as the longest they normally ever live is two years in the aquarium. when i bought it i did not know that.

let me know if somebody can find (or has) record of a linkia living over 3 years.

another question, how long do they live in the wild?

 

[morgan]

i have a blue lankia in a 50gallon tank it lost sum felsh to a ph but is regrowing and doing nicley they eat detirus and macroalgae films its possible to feed them small peices of fish meat
putting time limits on livestock is wrong in my opion the goniopra that cums sop highly regarded as a coral that dies in 6 months i have kept 1 for well over a year and my lfs has a red on that fell in to another coral had a peices the size on a dime left and regrew and is now 5 years old in his tank
just because sum says they only live for a couple of years or "yeh sure those 2 fish will get along" and then they dont alot of things a hearsay

 

[NaH2O]

How long did you acclimate the star for?

Have a look at these FAQs: Linkia FAQs

One thing I read in here, was some recommend trying to spot feed the star by placing the food near the star. There was a recommedation of trying to feed angel food to attempt to get the star some sponge material.

You can hand feed them by placing bits of seafood (got any sponge based marine angel food?) on the substrate in front of it's path or literally drop it right on top. Try this a few times per week or more.

With regards to whether or not Linkia's are hardy, Bob Fenner had this to say in the link above:

Sorry to read of your star's apparent failing health. Unfortunately this genus is not generally an aquarium hardy species. Most die soon after export... due to poor collection, handling, the trauma of shipping principally.

 

[redrooster]

I've had mine quite a while, 8 months maybe, and after joining this site now i am worried. I seems maybe sponges are part of their diet?? If so I have a large population of green ball sponges. This might be helping my cause. I have about 110-125lbs of LR in a 75 gal. Either way mine has always been relatively acitve and it spends most of its time on the glass. When he gets on the LR thought he hauls a$$ all over place. It can cover the whole
48" length in a couple of minutes.

I definitely will not purchase another Linkia though, unless this one lives for years. Also the blue ones are so big that I would think you would want a several hundred gal tank to even try those.

 

[VHO Guy]

99% of all linkias are dying well before they are purchased from the LFS. Unless these stars are acclimated properly at all stages of the stars capture as well as at the LFS.

With that being said if collected properly and living in a large (hundreds of gallon) aquarium they can thrive.

But refugiums are detrimental to the stars longevity due to the fact that the macro algae in the refugium will limit and lessen the growth of the linkias food source (film algae)

I wish that people would stop buying these and just leave them in the wild.

 

[Damsel13]

I did not know that these (or any stars) were so difficult to keep as when I was growing up on the west coast of Fla. they were so common. My 3" orange star survived the transfer process despite my ignorance but It definatly seems to do better when i do not clean my glass. I stays mostly on the glass and seems to feed for 3 or 4 days then park itself at the waterline and rest. I don't see a mouth to speak of so I don't think spot feeding is a viable alternative.

It is such a beautiful animal I want to take the best care of it I can.

Debbie