Blue Linckia Star

Care at a glance

Overview

Reef safe in the sense that it never touches coral, but this is the classic case of a beautiful animal that is a poor match for most home aquariums: it feeds almost entirely on biofilm grazed straight off live rock, nobody has worked out a reliable way to feed it in captivity, and a large share of the blue linckias sold in the trade slowly starve over six to twelve months even in decent tanks. Stress from starvation, cramped quarters, or unstable water quality also leaves it prone to a bacterial 'melting' that turns patches of an arm white and mushy, which is usually fatal once it starts. Give it the largest, oldest, most rock-packed reef tank available, resist adding more than one, and expect to lose thin-looking individuals even with good care; this is not a star for a first reef tank. Acclimate it over at least two hours of slow drip and never let it touch air, since a stressed linckia is a dying linckia.

In the wild

Common on shallow reef flats, rubble zones, and seagrass beds across the tropical Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa to Hawaii and French Polynesia, north to southern Japan, usually in water less than 20 m deep. It creeps slowly over rock and coral rubble grazing on the thin biofilm growing there, covering roughly 8 cm a minute, and in the aquarium it needs a large, old system with rock surfaces that have been left undisturbed long enough to build up that same film. A tank of at least 200 litres (53 US gal) with years, not months, of maturity behind it gives this star the best chance of finding enough food.

Good to know

Named laevigata, meaning smooth, for its evenly rounded, cylindrical arms, and best known for its saturated blue color, which comes from a large carotenoid-protein pigment called linckiacyanin in the body wall. Each arm tip carries a cluster of light-sensing eyespots, and like other Ophidiasteridae it can slowly regrow a damaged or lost arm. It has one dedicated parasite in the wild, a small snail called Thyca crystallina that attaches permanently to the underside of an arm and feeds on the star's fluids, leaving a visible scar where it sits.

Did you know

A close relative, Linckia multifora, can regrow an entire new sea star from a single detached arm, a stage so strange it has its own common name, the comet, since the tiny new body trailing its long original arm looks like a comet with a tail; Linckia laevigata shares the same regenerative powers but has not been confirmed to reproduce this way in the wild.

Related species

• 

  Multicolor Sea Star

  Linckia multifora

  5.1 in (13 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Chocolate Chip Star

  Protoreaster nodosus

  11.8 in (30 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Red Knob Sea Star

  Protoreaster linckii

  11.8 in (30 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
• Wedge Sea Hare

  Dolabella auricularia

  11.8 in (30 cm)50 gal (190 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Long-Spine Urchin

  Diadema setosum

  9.8 in (25 cm)50 gal (190 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Tiger Tail Sea Cucumber

  Holothuria hilla

  17.7 in (45 cm)50 gal (190 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)