Feeding Starfish

[tat2life]

hey guys i got a blue starfish and was wondering how i feed it.. after reading the back of the box of frozen squid it says place it underneath the starfish... is this right ? i dont really wanna touch the starfish and its always stuck on the glass or a rock so i cant see how its gonna work. any ideas ? cheers

 

[jourdy288]

Uhhh, no, I wouldn't advise putting it under the starfish. Make sure you wash your hands before putting them in the tank. No lotion, though. Now, you should place the squid next to him. Also, never expose him to air. EVER!

 

[n3ont3tra]

Blue starfish... you mean a Linkia Starfish? They have very poor survival records in captivity. Not many will live more than a year. This is because nobody is totally sure of what they eat.

 

[tat2life]

yup a blue one, it seems ok so far only had it 2 days but its moving all over the tank and climbing about rocks. how would i put it next to him though when he is stuck on the glass ? thats the bit i dont undersrand. and no i wont ever take him out the tank lol. though i have seen starfishes on beaches out the water for a while and they were ok

 

[n3ont3tra]

If he's on the glass I would wait until he comes down.
It depends on the type of starfish. I'm not sure which types are okay with it and which ones aren't, but better safe than sorry.

 

[tat2life]

yeah too true. il wait for him to go on the rocks then put some food near him

 

[Lynden]

Linckia are one of the few starfish that can live a full life in aquaria but they need an enormous amount of food, in the form of an equally enormous amount of live rock.

 

[Adrinal]

As far as I have researched thus far, "experts" agree that they only eat bacterial slime. You can try target feeding... but I have never read of success with that.

The current rule of thumb with linka (and I haven't looked them up in a year) is 150pounds of live rock per critter. Thats the rough guess on surface area they need to feed.

You wont notice them starving to death, till they are dead or sick.

 

[tat2life]

it hasnt moved from the glass for 24 hours so dunno how im gonna feed it lol its still alive cus its slid across the glass a bit and moving. put some food in and it didnt even notice it. i think im gonna have to handle it and put the food in my hand and let it eat it that way or on the rock and then put the starfish on the rock aswell. howcome it needs so much rock wen it is always on the glass lol

 

[n3ont3tra]

I would just leave it alone... I don't really think it will accept normal foods because if it did, then they wouldn't need all of that live rock. How big is your tank and how much live rock do you have?

 

[tat2life]

tank is 3ft long and about 2ft high, not much live rock about 4kg i think but got small bits wich cover most the floor i put him on the rocks when i put him in the tank but he moved onto galss after a few hours, was on the glass in the shop aswell. i know i need more rock gonna get some weekend

 

[eschaton]

it hasnt moved from the glass for 24 hours so dunno how im gonna feed it lol its still alive cus its slid across the glass a bit and moving. put some food in and it didnt even notice it. i think im gonna have to handle it and put the food in my hand and let it eat it that way or on the rock and then put the starfish on the rock aswell. howcome it needs so much rock wen it is always on the glass lol

Sorry, I don't mean to take this thread off topic, but does lol mean something different than when I was an internet neophyte ten years ago? I seem to remember it meaning "laughing out loud" but I can't imagine anything humorous about a starfish not eating.

 

[tat2life]

read all my posts... i use lol like a billion times, doesnt mean im litrally laughing. and it was after i dunno how ima feed it... not its not eating. i figured out how to feed it today, just stick the frozen squid next to it on the glass. seen a few vids of guys feeding them with tongs and attatchin food to string. if u gotta prob then pm me cus u say dont man to take take it off topic but quite obv u did etherwise u wuda pm'd me