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Cultivated Reef

do they eat clams?


SeaFish

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i have tried to search info on Orange Linkia Starfish. i have found that they are scavengers, eats algae, and are consider reef safe. i also found that the orange linkia starfish grows to about 5 inches. how valid is this since most star fish grows to over a foot long? how true are these searches and will they attack maxima or corcea clams?

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Just so you know that linkia will not survive in your tank for too long. They need an established tank and a couple hundred pounds of LR to survive a long period of time. If you want more info do a search on RC there is a person there who is VERY familiar with their needs. She'll tell you everything you want to know.

 

sorry but IMO they dont belong in a tank under 100g

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why do linkas need a very establish tank? everywhere i look, they say that it is low maintence. can someone tell me why?

 

search RC? what do you mean?

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Sorry I didnt see you replied....for some reason I dont get notified anymore either???

 

Anyway yeah do a search on RC and reefs.org you'll get some helpful info. They're are many who have had luck with them but two things are very important.

 

1. acclimation, they need a verrrrrryyyyyyyy slow drip acclimation.

most people drip for 6 to 9 hours.

 

2. large established tank

 

They dont ship well at all so if you decide to give it a try make sure you watch it at the LFS for at least a week before you buy it.

And ask them how they acclimated it, if they say "doode they aint that tuff just drop them in broa" then do not buy it from them!

They will have screwed your chances before you even saw it.

 

HTH

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For what it is worth, I have 2 linkia arms that I bought from my LFS. After they had broken off off the rest of the animal and all 3 parts were doing well for about a month I asked about them and bought the arms for my 10G. They are doing fine and regrowing their other 4 arms (they are now about 5 mm long each).

 

My acclimation process was pretty scientific. Open bag, grab starfish with hand, drop in tank. I know they are supposed to be sensitive, but I alway have the best luck just droping things in....

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Yep, I used to acclimate EVERYTHING very slowly for hours while I floated and aerated the bag. I couldn't get snails to take to the tank. So I bought 2 Astrea and plunked 'em in. They did fine. So I did 2 more the next week. So did they. The tank already has it's fish (if I didn't, I would indeed still acclimate these guys over a few hours as I would with arthropods), but any corals, snails, echinoderms, chordates, Polycheates.....I just plunk 'em.

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East Coast Clams

As far as Linkia's go they should be slow dripped. If you plunk'em and they live, you are lucky. They need a well established tank as they feed on micro-bacteria. They need lots of it. If you have a true orange linkia, it will not bother your clam.

 

Plunk'em, wow hey whatever works.

 

Rob

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Yeah, I know...it wasn't my first choice of methodology, but something in my slow acclimation process was leading to poor survival.

 

For what it is worth, I don't throw 'em in from across the room or anthing...I actually set them in quite gently.

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