James C. Frank

I got a Linckia laevigata seastar yesterday from FFExpress. It came in looking in ok health (except for what appeared to be an egested stomach, or food .... whatever it was was grey and frilly, which soon disappeared after introduction, and now resides apparently smaller in size at the ventral side of a tip of an arm), acclimated for a good hour and some, and started off in the tank pretty happily. Two Diadema savignyi that I'd put in around the same time started moving towards the same general area of the star and there they stayed all night, moving a few inches throughout the course of the evening, somewhat in close proximity at times. Well, I woke up this morning and went down to the lobby to have a look and make sure all was well, and alas, all was not. The Linckia has developed a white-ish patch towards the dorsal base of one of his appendages, which I can't identify the cause or effects of. The patch is kinda chunky, as though something's been knawing at it, possibly the arrow crab or the red reef hermits? What about our viscous Coral Beauty angel, or maybe the diademas spines (but there's no sign of broken spines in the Star's flesh)? No one's witnessed anything picking at it though, so we're confused... Any insights or info on this species and more particularly the one that's seemingly suffering in our tank would be much appreciated.

Ronald L. Shimek

Well, I woke up this morning and went down to the lobby to have a look and make sure all was well, and alas, all was not. The Linckia has developed a white-ish patch towards the dorsal base of one of his appendages, which I can't identify the cause or effects of. The patch is kinda chunky, as though something's been knawing at it, possibly the arrow crab or the red reef hermits?

This could have a couple of causes predation as you suspect, most likely from the Diadema (yes, they will eat flesh), or salinity acclimation problems. These stars are notoriously hard to transport and acclimate - I would guess the mortality is probably close to 80-90 percent. It will like full strenght salinity = 36 ppt, or about 1.025 sp. g. Generally, successful acclimations often take 4-6 hours.

Linckia laevigata is a non-selective surface feeder and if happy will wander around your tank with the stomach partly out digesting the world. They make pretty good reef pets if they survive the acclimation.

Digesting the WORLD?? Is that a good thing??

Many species of stars live in this manner. No biggie.

Any good refs you can offer me on this guy?

Nothing specifically on this species, here's a URL for an article I wrote on stars in general, and if memory serves I do discuss Linckia briefly.

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish/aqfm/1998/april/wb/default.asp

Keith Redfield

There are several reports of the various pieces that begin to fall off when they acclimate poorly. But there are also reports that the pieces can survive (actually I can confirm that) and that they may eventually regenerate.

So if yours goes to pot, don't toss the whole thing - just keep excising the tissue that is clearly a goner, and you might end up with some linkia-ettes

Keith Clarke

transport and acclimate - I would guess the mortality is probably close to 80-90 percent. It will like full strenght salinity = 36 ppt, or about 1.025 sp. g. Generally, successful acclimations often take 4-6 hours.

The linkia I recently brought home from the lfs was in water with a specific gravity of 1.015! It spent the next 15 hours on a slow drip acclimation. A month later the specimen is healthy and motoring around the tank.

A previous attempt to add a linkia resulted in ray disintegration ( None of ray fragments grew mouths and eventually turned into a mess of festering flesh.

Here are some photos of the unsuccessful acclimation http://www.geocities.com/banggai/blinckia.html

How do you do a 15 hour acclimation? Do you use an air pump also? Or do you just drip into a bucket or something until it's full. How do you control the temperature? I usually take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to acclimate fish so it adjusts the salinity and temperature.

The linkia was in a bucket placed in the sump with the drip line from the main tank above. Since it was floating in same water temperature swings were not a problem. The difficulty lies in awakening every couple of hours through the night to remove half of the water from the bucket and explaining to my manager why I was late for work. "I had to acclimate my Linkia laevigata!"

A 15 hour acclimation may well have been overkill, but I chose to err on the side of caution. Echinoderms are extremely sensitive to salinity changes. This linkia had been kept at the lfs at a salinity of 21ppt. My reef is maintained at 36ppt. I wondered if 15 hours was too quick. Fortunately the stress of hyposalinity at the lfs and the change to natural salinity didn't result in the demise of the creature.

See the linkia http://www.geocities.com/coral_reef_mania/Linkia2767.jpg

I mentioned to the lfs that the salinity was terribly low in their coral tanks. "I keep forgetting to add salt", was the response. At about that same time the death toll of clams and corals was shocking. I recall telling folks that 10 of 10 clams were dead or gaping while maintained under NO lights, 6 of 6 green open brains dead or dying, and numerous soft corals were in meltdown mode. This store makes a strong case for certifying live stock resellers.

Richard Durso

How do you do a 15 hour acclimation? Do you use an air pump also? ....

I have a page on my web site that describes how to perform drip acclimation. I don't use a bucket or anything. I attach the bags to my sump to keep them floating with a stable temperature.

http://members.xoom.com/reefland/pages/acclimation.htm