Culcita schmideliana. My favorite Starfish of all time. Actually, my 2 favorites and one of them is a 20 year mystery to me still.

[RockBox13]

Cushion Starfish I pulled from Underwater World. The only one I ever saw and I kept it for months before a customer talked me out of it and I knew he had the right kind of tank for it. It isn’t “fully” reef safe, it will eat Galaxea, Goniopora and Xenia and some sponges as well. This is a photo I took myself.

This is a picture from the internet.

Patiria pectinifera and they seriously look this cool in person. I know I have a picture I downloaded on an old iPad. There was one kept in the invert rack at the first fish store I worked at, AZ Seabottom starting around 2005-2006. It was there when I started, no one knew where it came from or how it got there. Definitely very hardy for a starfish. We just didn’t sell it because we liked it and I would have kept it forever if I knew what I was looking at during that time. It wasn’t until a few years later that with some new books I finally figured out what it actually was. In 20 years I’ve never seen or heard of another anywhere, much less available anywhere, including a couple hundred trips to LA visiting multiple wholesalers each time. Now, there is a Patiria miniata that exists from California north along the west coast. The Patiria pectiniformis only exists on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Japan, China & Russia. I have heard of “Japanese Zoanthids” coming from the southernmost islands that belong to Japan, but have you ever heard of a Chinese or Russian shipment of anything in the saltwater aquarium hobby? So for 18 years, every time I think of that starfish this is the never ending loop in my brain: So how? Who would? But why? And if? But why? So how?…

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Cushion Starfish I pulled from Underwater World. The only one I ever saw and I kept it for months before a customer talked me out of it and I knew he had the right kind of tank for it. It isn’t “fully” reef safe, it will eat Galaxea, Goniopora and Xenia and some sponges as well. This is a photo I took myself.

This is a picture from the internet.

Patiria pectinifera and they seriously look this cool in person. I know I have a picture I downloaded on an old iPad. There was one kept in the invert rack at the first fish store I worked at, AZ Seabottom starting around 2005-2006. It was there when I started, no one knew where it came from or how it got there. Definitely very hardy for a starfish. We just didn’t sell it because we liked it and I would have kept it forever if I knew what I was looking at during that time. It wasn’t until a few years later that with some new books I finally figured out what it actually was. In 20 years I’ve never seen or heard of another anywhere, much less available anywhere, including a couple hundred trips to LA visiting multiple wholesalers each time. Now, there is a Patiria miniata that exists from California north along the west coast. The Patiria pectiniformis only exists on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Japan, China & Russia. I have heard of “Japanese Zoanthids” coming from the southernmost islands that belong to Japan, but have you ever heard of a Chinese or Russian shipment of anything in the saltwater aquarium hobby? So for 18 years, every time I think of that starfish this is the never ending loop in my brain: So how? Who would? But why? And if? But why? So how?…

I've gotten Japanese Patiria starfish before, but that was when I was a public aquarium curator. They are pretty cheap - about $10 USD last time I ordered them, but the shipping cost quadruples that. Their color is highly variable, and I never got one as colorful as the one in your picture. Mine were all olive green with a splash of lighter orange.

I've worked with the California Patiria for close to 40 years. They used to be very hardy, we'd get them, put them in a tank and they'd live for a long time - years. More recently, the "starfish wasting disease" seems to have affected them, I've had trouble with them dying after a short few months, although a few will live longer, but they just hang there and don't move much.

Jay