Might get a seastar. I'm a little rusty on keeping marine aquariums.

MudskipperFan

MudskipperFan

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Yeah, I've been considering buying a seastar, and the only one that can fit in a ten gallon is an asterina. So what are some things I should look into before buying these things?
BTW - I'm only getting the tank for just some live rock and 1 asterina.
 
Are you sure star is ID'd correctly?
Asterinas are tiny, like 1/4 or less, and they are considered a nuissance star, and quickly over populate.
 
Like davocean mentioned, Asterinas are TINY (like eraser size). They usually hitchhike in on LR and can multiply like the dickens. That said, you will be able to keep one in a tank that small but I would not put a star of any other kind in a 10 gallon. Stars need a lot of room and a lot of liverock and open sand to find food. You can target feed them to a degree but I would not recommend that either. Agree with the mantis shrimp or goby/pistol shrimp idea. Both are really cool and the later allows you to observe a cool symbiotic relationship between a basically blind shrimp and his seeing eye goby.
 
K.
Can I keep an asterina with the goby and shrimp? Can I also get live rock and use that as the bacteria source?
 
Just to be sure we are talking about the same star, please look at this page:

http://www.nano-reef.com/invertebrates/?id=9

If thats it, then yes but I don't think I have ever seen one of these "for sale" you usually just get them as hitchhikers and you don;t see them very often even when you do have a few in your tank.

Yes, live rock is what you want for bio filration. It contains the denitrifying bacteria that you want/need.
 
Yeah, they are tiny, one alone you'll rarely see, and it won't look like a "wow" type of thing IMO.
Usually we get them by accident, and when you see one, you probably have a ton you haven't noticed.
They eat at coraline algae, the purple stuff covering rocks that most of us like, and see as a sign of success.
Many better options IMO.
 
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