Panama City Beach Starfish

Discussion Of Local Group Meetings For the Baldwin County and Mobile Area

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KrazyPlace
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Panama City Beach Starfish

Post by KrazyPlace »

Does anyone have any experience with the starfish caught off of Panama City Beach? A friend of mine came back this week after a 1 week diving vacation over there. He brought me some 'gifts' which included 4 small starfish he snatched up. They're really cool looking; black/dark maroon base color with lots of small white spots. They are small like a quarter or a half dollar. Has anyone ever put these in a reef tank?
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danielmiller82
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Post by danielmiller82 »

does it look like this:
Image

or this
Image

If so it is the Echinaster spinulosus or Orange Starfish. very common around these parts and is considered reef safe
-daniel
http://www.admiller.com
-30g long and a 9g percula tank in the babies room.
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KrazyPlace
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Post by KrazyPlace »

Yep... this is it:

Image

You think they are safe?
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danielmiller82
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Post by danielmiller82 »

KrazyPlace wrote:You think they are safe?
From all that I have read, they seem to be reefsafe and good additions to aquariums. A few online stores sell them for reeftanks. I have no personal experience with these though. Just do a search for "Echinaster spinulosus" or orange starfish and see what you find.
-daniel
http://www.admiller.com
-30g long and a 9g percula tank in the babies room.
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KrazyPlace
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Post by KrazyPlace »

Do they change color with age? If they do, then that would explain the difference in color in the two pictures. All 4 of mine look the same, but they are really small. What I have been able to find the Internet said they get up to 4" across.

They also said that they eat snails. That doesn't sound good me, but I might put one in the reef tank for a test.
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danielmiller82
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Post by danielmiller82 »

one website said that they can change color 3-4 times during their life
-daniel
http://www.admiller.com
-30g long and a 9g percula tank in the babies room.
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KrazyPlace
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Post by KrazyPlace »

Can you send me that link?
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danielmiller82
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Post by danielmiller82 »

-daniel
http://www.admiller.com
-30g long and a 9g percula tank in the babies room.
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Amphiprion
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Post by Amphiprion »

To my knowledge, this particular Echinaster species is temperate, not tropical. May want to keep an eye on it to make sure temp-related stress does not occur. There are several starfish sold that are also temperate, which usually dont live terribly long in captivity in higher temps.
Andrew

25g planted nature aquarium
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