Anyone ever owned a Feather Star and/or a spiral gorgonian?

Clay&Chey · #1 12-24-2009, 05:02 AM

We were at a local fish store today and saw an interesting creature we'd never seen. A feather star... Has anyone ever owned one and had it live for any length of time?? What were its care requirements? Also saw a spiral gorgonian same question.... Any of you ever owned one for any length of time and if so what were the care requirements? Thanks

Skimmerking · #2 12-24-2009, 05:07 AM

hey go on google and look them up then you will see what u are getting in to alot of reefers do that here and on Reef Central. ah crap i said the RC word on here oops

Marlin65 · #3 12-24-2009, 05:08 AM

By feather star do you mean basket star don't get it they are sure to die. It's one of the ones that even experts don't know how to feed I think they might live 2 months best case.

They should not be imported but a lot of times they are brought in as substitutions for some thing else.

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #4 12-24-2009, 07:48 AM

I tried "rescuing" a basket/feather star years ago from an LFS with no success. Had it for 2 or 3 months, fed with cyclopeeze, reefroids & spirulina powder. Targetted it several times a day, no luck.

Definitely one to stay in the ocean till they figure out what works.

Anthony

Clay&Chey · #5 12-24-2009, 10:17 AM

hey i went on that google thing and they have these great things called house hippos... they live in your walls steal your socks and use lint to make nests. thanks for the tip but i already had i was curious if anyone here had personal experience.

Douglas · #6 12-24-2009, 03:41 PM

I tried to keep one, to no sucess. Feeding it was an issue, and once it started to drop parts of it's arms, it was done. Interesting creatures, but very hard to keep, in my opinion

naesco · #7 12-24-2009, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clay&Chey

We were at a local fish store today and saw an interesting creature we'd never seen. A feather star... Has anyone ever owned one and had it live for any length of time?? What were its care requirements? Also saw a spiral gorgonian same question.... Any of you ever owned one for any length of time and if so what were the care requirements? Thanks

God if your LFS is bringing in Feather or Basket Stars to unsuspecting reefers you better change LFS and give them a talking to.
Zero chance of success. Best left in the ocean.

Merry Christmas

Pier Pressure · #8 12-24-2009, 03:58 PM

Yeah these feather stars are tough. I got rooked into one at an LFS and it lasted approximately two months. I tried to feed it everything and it just did not pan out.

Myka · #9 12-24-2009, 03:58 PM

I've seen Feather/Basket starfish at a few different LFS. I have also seen one in a tank that I went to buy some corals from. It was the biggest Feather star I've ever seen. The guy said he had it for 2 years, and didn't do anything special for it. The tank also has the absolute worst Acoel FW infestation I have ever seen (I didn't buy any of the corals!). Who knows if the guy was telling the truth...maybe he had the star for 3 days for all I know.

I've never seen Iridogorgia in person. Very cool gorg, but I think the only hope of success would be to have a dedicated non-photosynthetic tank for it.

mseepman · #10 12-24-2009, 04:43 PM

My LFS brought in several one year and I tried one. It was beautiful but I was only able to keep it about 5 months. I tried every food that I could google and still nothing worked. It was a beautiful creature and it made me sick to watch fade away and die.

I would never recommend one. I know I spoke to my LFS about never bringing them in again and they told me that there was a 100% mortality among the people who bought them.