Starfish, urchin, or both in tank

[ajtomase]

I've heard that pincushion and tuxedo urchins will starfish. Has anyone experienced that, or is it safe to keep both in the tank at the same time?

 

[i cant think]

I've heard that pincushion and tuxedo urchins will starfish. Has anyone experienced that, or is it safe to keep both in the tank at the same time?

I find it to be safe to keep both in the same tank however I prefer urchins since stars don’t do much other than look decorative if I’m honest.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I keep both urchins and sea stars (and brittle stars) together in the same tank. There's little interaction between them. But why limit the discussion to tuxedo and pincushion urchins? There are so many nice urchin species available to us.

My answer to your question? "yes"

 

[muzikalmatt]

I've kept a pincushion urchin and a red fromia starfish in my IM Nuvo 40 and they had no issues with each other.

If I had to recommend one over the other it would definitely be the urchin. While they can be bulldozers at times, they are basically a reef tank roomba when it comes to consuming algae, and you can find some pretty colorful varieties.

Starfish are great visual additions, but fromias don't eat algae and sandstars can wipe out your sandbed microfauna. Fromias typically don't last long in captivity either, as we don't know exactly what they eat so it's hard to supplement their diet. Mine lasted about a year before he started disintegrating, which is typically how they go.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have both and no issues. Ironic is, that they both move fairly slow

 

[Kapachuka3]

Dude I would not risk getting either, starfish never do good in tanks and only if you are lucky you will get an urchin that will adapt to water changes. I have a baseball sized white pincushion urchin and I got lucky that he is very hardy in my tank. My opinion is that they both stay in the ocean.

 

[Maddreef]

I've had the opposite experience of @Kapachuka3 with urchins, but the same with stars.