Sea Stars
Excerpt: Because Linckia stars appear to derive the vast majority of their nutrition from surface films, and are known for actively rejecting attempts to feed them, they are unlikely to do well in a tank that is recently, (within 6 months) set up, or one in which there is not enough live rock for them to continually find new surface films from which to graze. Therefore, they are not really recommended for reef tanks smaller than about 50 gallons or so for the long-term. Although small stars may do well in smaller tanks for some time, they will eventually require more space. The problem is that in such small tanks, even if the star is successfully acclimated (I?ll come back to this important detail in a moment), a reasonably-sized sea star (say about the size of your hand) will not have enough well-aged rock surface to continue to find food for extended periods of time. Another important consideration for tanks smaller than about 50 gallons is that Linckia laevigata can get quite large (30 cm or more across) and the amount of food they require will increase with their size -- obviously, the amount of established live rock in your tank will have to be quite large to support a grazing star which is about a foot in diameter!!
6 -8 hours....well if alex has already acclimated to his system maybe when transfered to our systems it wouldnt need to be acclimated for that long....????????
