Brackish Starfish Confirmed

[freshwater/marine?]

My starfish are all alive after 3 weeks. They were hiding in my filter medium.

 

[AMS]

Are these the ones you collected yourself? Are you sure they are seastars? They could be amphipods which are notorious for living in filter media, never heard of seastars hiding in filter media though (although these are blatantly nowhere similar in appearance). Any pictures could help with an identification

Brackish echinoderms are very rare so what you may have are some type of estuarine annelids. That's a guess though.

 

[freshwater/marine?]

They are definatley brittle stars. I bought a serpent starfish and it is alive after one week! My blennies have been beating on it pretty bad though. It is always getting in the way at feeding time.

 

[Kevin_D]

I didnt know starfish could be kept at anything other than in a fully marine set up, how long does a serpent starfish live for? and can they be bred in the home aquarium?

 

[nmonks]

Brackish water echinoderms are rather uncommon. There are some estuarine brittlestars though (see here) and you may have some of those in your aquarium. All very interesting, and some photographs might we nice too.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Kevin_D]

Are brackish water starfish very difficult to find for sale?

 

[nmonks]

Yes. There are hardly any brackish water brittlestars and even fewer starfish (I can think of only one, the Baltic Sea population of Asterias rubens). For all practical purposes, forget about it unless you are able to actually collect your own from a brackish water environment.

Many small "critters" that come on living rocks and are sold cheaply to marine fishkeepers may be estuarine or euryhaline species. The blue-leg hermit crab is a classic example, and appears to be a truly euryhaline species. But unless you have the skills to identify marine invertebrates, or are prepared to experiment and lose livestock when things go wrong, I personally can't recomment trying out marine inverts in a brackish water tank. Far better to stick with known brackish water inverts, such as nerite snails, fiddler crabs, and hermit crabs.

Cheers, Neale

Are brackish water starfish very difficult to find for sale?

 

[Kevin_D]

Thanks for the advice, I'll forgot about those then, I'd still like to set up a brackish water inverts tank, I was thinking about Red Clawed Crabs, but since It wont be for a few months, and I have to research a lot more first (im planning on buying your book in a few weeks also) I have plenty of time to decide what I'd like to keep.

I didnt know Hermit Crabs were brackish either, what species are brackish?

Yes. There are hardly any brackish water brittlestars and even fewer starfish (I can think of only one, the Baltic Sea population of Asterias rubens). For all practical purposes, forget about it unless you are able to actually collect your own from a brackish water environment.

Many small "critters" that come on living rocks and are sold cheaply to marine fishkeepers may be estuarine or euryhaline species. The blue-leg hermit crab is a classic example, and appears to be a truly euryhaline species. But unless you have the skills to identify marine invertebrates, or are prepared to experiment and lose livestock when things go wrong, I personally can't recomment trying out marine inverts in a brackish water tank. Far better to stick with known brackish water inverts, such as nerite snails, fiddler crabs, and hermit crabs.

Cheers, Neale

Are brackish water starfish very difficult to find for sale?

 

[The-Wolf]

not to put a damper on things but
being alive and thriving are two different things.

I guess the bench mark for claiming this as a sucess would be breeding
or at the very least spawing/mating behaviour

 

[nmonks]

Wolfie old boy, if this was the only standard, 99% of marine fishkeepers would be failures!

But your point is solid. While there may well be brackish water echinoderms, I'd want to see them alive after months rather than years. I'd also want to see them growing or at the least feeding in front of me.

Cheers, Neale

I guess the bench mark for claiming this as a sucess would be breeding
or at the very least spawing/mating behaviour

 

[The-Wolf]

But your point is solid. I'd want to see them alive after months rather than years.

I think you ment that the other way around

ok I'll conceed that growth would be the bench mark rather than breeding/spawning

 

[nmonks]

Yes, I meant months rather than *weeks* as in the original post. Sorry, in a hurry!

BTW, Wolf, your signature never loads on my computer. Just that little "Cylon's eye" type animation. Is it perhaps not compatible with Macs? Or just very slow?

Neale

 

[The-Wolf]

follow the instructions then
just click the 'cylon eye' as you call it

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

follow the instructions then
just click the 'cylon eye' as you call it

 

[pica_nuttalli]

yeah, i've never seen it actually load either. but i suspect that may be the joke