[Mekong]

Can anyone identify this star fish?

It has 6 legs as you can see, is this a deformity or natural?

It is about 6” I would say.

[Ninong]

Maybe it's Pentaceraster tuberculatus?

[zhenya]

Interesting star.it is an Oreasterid,which genera is hard to say but it does look very nice,especially the pictures themselves.Exceptional quality pix I must add Do you have a pic of it showing the top of the animal? BTW, six rays on a star is not all that uncommon,some have 5,some have 4 or 6

Weird,I know.

[Mekong]

Its not my star, I want it to be my star and have been trying to talk the owner of a LFS into selling it to me. She has no idea what it is. I brought my camera to the LFS and didnt really have time to wait for it to pose so I snapped the best I could. Before I buy it I want to make sure I know every thing about keeping it so I dont kill something that looks that incredable.

Anyone got any advice on keeping it?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Mekong

Anyone got any advice on keeping it?

My advice would be to leave it at the LFS unless you know for certain that it will not be a threat to your reef tank inhabitants. Most seastars are trouble in reeftanks and only a few are what might be considered reef-safe. Since the few that are relatively reef-safe have been mentioned in all the hobby books already, chances are that the one pictured is not considered a good bet in a reef tank.

Does the LFS know which ocean this seastar came from? Is it from the Atlantic or from the Indo-Pacific?

P.S. -- The ones mentioned by all the hobby authors as acceptable risks in reef tanks are in the genera Linckia and Fromia. The one you have pictured is in neither of those two genera.

[zhenya]

Even the ones that are considered safe,like the aforementioned Linkia, generally starve to death in pretty short order.Unless of course you have a 500 gallon tank and have enough food for them to graze upon. I'd definately heed Ninongs advice on this one, leave it at the LFS.

[Mekong]

All that the star could eat in my tank is my snails. I doubt it could eat 5"+ fish. No corals, just live rock, macro algae snails and fish.

But I think that I might want to do corals some day so I guess I am going to forget about the star.

Isnt it so cool looking? 6 legs!

Okay since no star, how about a fighting conch?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Mekong

Okay since no star, how about a fighting conch?

I have two fighting conchs (Strombus alatus) in my 120-gal reef tank. I like them.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Mekong

Okay since no star, how about a fighting conch?

Do you have sand in your tank? If you do, they are great diatom grazers and I had witnessed myself them eating cyano. Ninong has lots of open sand in his tank and that is what this snails need as they do not climb any rocks or glass.I'm glad you decided to leave that star where you saw it

[almostdiva]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Ninong has lots of open sand in his tank and that is what this snails need as they do not climb any rocks or glass.

Uhh... I guess my queen conch didn't get the message on that one! I find it on the rocks or the glass as often as it is grazing the sandbed. You're right about them doing a dandy job in the clean up area!

Rebecca

[Mekong]

I have a good amount of open sand because my takifugu niphobles likes to burry in the sand. He seems to be a very docile puff, hasnt even touched the turbs or the astrea snails in my tank, allthought he and my marine betta have been trying to eat the two nasurius snails I tryed, they are just barley too big to swallow.

Thanks