Fromia Star surface skimming?

[Euphylliaphyle]

My Red Fromia Sea Star has a curious habit of climbing to the top of the tank an extending the top arm out parallel to and right at the water surface while clinging with the other arms. Is this a type of feeding activity?

 

[Stomatopods17]

wouldn't surprise me if its tide pooling but thinks the water column is the tide itself depending on flow.

Fromias tend to run out of food in aquariums and starve, usually the response to this in the wild is to enter a different tide pool the moment the water raises a bit where the food is more present (this is what our aquariums are like to them, just octopus and sally lightfoot crabs don't wait for tides they traverse a bit on land),

Only way to confirm feeding behavior is if the stomache is out, but typically fromia is going to move from one feeding spot to the next, so if it isn't detecting food and moving to it (or maybe detecting it behind the over flow and waiting for the 'tide' to raise enough to crawl back there) it's probably trying to leave.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

wouldn't surprise me if its tide pooling but thinks the water column is the tide itself depending on flow.

Fromias tend to run out of food in aquariums and starve, usually the response to this in the wild is to enter a different tide pool the moment the water raises a bit where the food is more present (this is what our aquariums are like to them, just octopus and sally lightfoot crabs don't wait for tides they traverse a bit on land),

Only way to confirm feeding behavior is if the stomache is out, but typically fromia is going to move from one feeding spot to the next, so if it isn't detecting food and moving to it (or maybe detecting it behind the over flow and waiting for the 'tide' to raise enough to crawl back there) it's probably trying to leave.

Can I supplement it's diet? How?

 

[Stomatopods17]

With fromias unfortunately no.

Fromia sp. eat an invisible micro film that we don't really know how to propagate in the hobby and tends to be a 'vibe' of when there is a sufficient enough amount in a large tank to sustain them in the long run (which is why you'll see 'success' stories of a 1 year fromia once in awhile but usually not much else, big tank + waiting a couple years seems to be the common denominators).

You can in theory do tank transfers between multiple aquariums while the previous is still seeded with this micro-film, but there's no method to this its quite literally vibes without being able to properly identify what this micro-film even is.

There's a couple starfish like this but majority of them have had some form of discovery or potential break through, even if its simply being less demanding, fromia is still an unanswered case.

 

[Stomatopods17]

Buying live rock from seeded tanks and switching that could supplement as well, but it'd have to be established rock not just seeded by covered. I doubt this would work long term but its something I'd try if I was committed enough.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

Buying live rock from seeded tanks and switching that could supplement as well, but it'd have to be established rock not just seeded by covered. I doubt this would work long term but its something I'd try if I was committed enough.

Thank you.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

@Stomatopods17 , I had an idea (always potential trouble). I removed my skimmer cup, emptied the liquid, hung it sideways in my DT near where my Fromia hangs out. I'm hoping the bio film within will be favorable to the star.
Well, he found it and climbed inside.

He appears to be eating, getting all contorted into the corners. Its hard to determine if his stomach is out through the smoked plastic skimmer cup, but I'm hopeful. I put a spare cup on the skimmer to get it all bio-fouled too. I'm hoping to swap these out as needed to keep the star fed. Wish us luck!