Red Linckia Starfish

Redbird5 · Sep 25, 2026

I stumbled on a video on Linckia Starfish from Brock Leonard. He said that they'd live in any size aquarium as long as the aquarium is mature and had algae and other micro-fauna to eat. AI is saying that's optimistic view on them and they do better in bigger aquariums. I'd like to have a starfish (reef safe) in my tank. They are cool. Brittle stars and serpent stars are a bit creepy and hide. Sand sifting stars I would never see. What is everyone's experience with the Linckia starfish?

Fish Fan · Sep 25, 2026

In my opinion, that's optimistic at best. Time and time again we see these stars slowly starve to death in most home aquaria. I believe to give them the best chance of long-term survival, they need both a very mature sandbed, and a very large sandbed.

I think most of the true sea stars are not a great choice for most home aquaria, either because they are specialized biofilm feeders like the LInkia, or because they are not at all reef safe, like the Chocolate Chip stars.

While not a true sea star, I think brittle and serpent stars are the best choice for home aquaria, although these animals can sometimes take down fish.

There's lots of threads about the Linkia and sand sifters here on R2R:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-linkia-starfish-survival.1115890/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-linckia-starfish.970754/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-orange-linckia-starfish.1114134/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sand-sifting-starfish-care.994018/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/is-a-sand-sifting-star-worth-it.877034/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sand-sifting-star-help.979255/

I hope this helps!

Redbird5 · Sep 25, 2026

Yep. It looks like starfish are going to remain on the oh those are cool to look at, at the LFS rather than oh one can live in my aquarium. If I could find a way to get them to consistently eat I'd try it, but there's animals in the hobby that simply don't do well in home aquariums.

Fish Fan · Sep 25, 2026

Redbird5 said:
Yep. It looks like starfish are going to remain on the oh those are cool to look at, at the LFS rather than oh one can live in my aquarium. If I could find a way to get them to consistently eat I'd try it, but there's animals in the hobby that simply don't do well in home aquariums.

I agree, and it's unfortunate that so many are sold in the pet trade.

Redbird5 · Sep 25, 2026

Fish Fan said:
I agree, and it's unfortunate that so many are sold in the pet trade.

It's like Moorish Idols. If I had the tank size for them I'd have to look into them but they require a specific diet and often die in captivity. It's not worth depleting the oceans for a short term experiment in my home when they can thrive in the ocean.