Reefcleaners.org John? Info on Purple Beaded Star ?

[lawnmowerblenny]

Could have sent this directly to reef cleaners but Im not sure they even have a scientific name for the little guy and there was no photo on the site and now that I ordered it I can no longer view that page on the site

(I'm guessing they only had 1 in stock)...

 

Its description Read "when it's not feeding on microfauna in your tank it will be looking for food, according to my book it is not a cleaner star."

 

Anyone if you can will you please send me a photo so we can get a positive ID and maybe a little more info on the requirements if any info is known.

 

I see john on here frequently so maybe he can help me out, thanks guys!

 

Reefcleaners is the best cant wait for my chaeto w/ pods and dwarf ceriths my 1st batch are getting much bigger and are always busy eating algae! much better than any snail at any of my LFS and much more hardy imo way better than spending 1-2$ each on something like a margarita and they dont even tell you its cold water snail wtf? The LFS in my are are almost as bad as petco!

[johnmaloney]

wow that was fast lol....i have a few random invert species i was adding to the site and i guess you got to it.

 

Astropecten articulatus is a pretty common and hardy sea star. It will need to be target fed, (we use sinking granules that are fish meal based, very basic) in a nano tank, and the food should be fed in a way so as to keep away competitors from the slow moving star. It may find enough to scavenge in a large tank. It will rarely venture onto any hard surface and prefers the sand. It seems safe around most corals, but I havent tried it around everything. Can burrow fairly deep, about 1.5 inches down, it is a thicker and more colorful star, and commonly found in nature. I have had the particular one you bought for 4 months at least.

 

List of corals it hasnt eaten but has had the opportunity to:

 

cabbage leather

gsp

zoanthids

hammers, frogspawns...

elegnace coral

xenia

palys

[lawnmowerblenny]

awesome! I hope we can work it out!

 

going to do my research... so you said sinking pellets I have some that are similar think they are ocean nutrition garlic sinking pellets also have omega one shrimp pellets but thet are much larger...

 

 

Should be a good amount of micro fauna in the tank tho because at the moment I dont think they have a predator...

 

now that I see the star looks a lot like a sand sifter... Hopefully that's not so cuz its going in a 55 and I have heard sand sifters need like 100gal+ and can exceed 12"

[johnmaloney]

there isnt much sand though in your tank.....starfish police would ticket us for that I think. It needs about the sand requirements of 1.5 Fighting Conchs. So something like this tank:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GQ1PR-zsx8c/SR0F.../s400/Rocks.jpg

not my picture etc...i just grabbed it as an example from google, but that kind of open sand structure in a 80 something or so....that would work. Or a more invert specific tank mudflat tank would be different. It all depends on the tank of course...... It just needs lots of continuous sand space or it will get boxed in.

[lawnmowerblenny]

my 55 has at least 1.5" the left side was only about 1" but recently my pistol shrimp has ventured over there and now the tank ranges from a 1.5-2.5" as far as sand depth goes.

 

 

 

if u look at some of the older fts you can see I just cropped the newest fts and you cant see the non aerobic part of the sand bed... its is about another 1.5" on top of what you see in the current fts.

[johnmaloney]

sand sifter? i think the term refers to a behavior rather than a species. These guys are about the size of a woman's hand at full size fully grown, this guy is about 1/2 inch away or so.

[lawnmowerblenny]

yeah well i learned the hard way my lfs gave me a Astropecten polycanthus and was shortlived because it was in a pico! go figure you can only trust an lfs if you have a friend that works there imo...