i bought a small orange linckia star last week and it dosent move at all. all it does is hang out near the top of the water with an arm hanging out abouve the water sometimes. is this normal????/
The sad part about asking if this is normal means it usually means it's not.
On the other hand, Linkias don't move too much.
Unfortunatly, they usually move alittle more than that.
What is your salinity at?
Nitrates?
Temp?
I have a purple linkia and it moves a good bit all over the tank, but more in the mornings than later in the day....not sure why.
I would think if yours is hanging out near the top, there is something in the tank it does not like....what kind of water motion do you have? It may be a lack of movement, therefore a lack of good oxygen exchange. I have read that if snails congregate at the top of a tank, then there are low levels of oxygen in the water. HTH good luck! They are beautiful animals.
thanks my nitates are at 0 and salinitys at .23 oh yeah temp is at 78. i have 4 turbos and are always slithering all over the tank so i dont think oxygen is the problem. anything else ?
Linkias can be tricky! None of them ship particularly well...
I don't have an orange one but I know my 2 blues needed special attention during acclimation. Appearently linkias are prone to shock if they are exposed to sudden changes in salinity. If they can not recover, they will die (about the 3rd week after being added to the new tank).
To help them adjust you should baby them for a few hours- slowly dripping your tank water into their bag- before adding them to your tank. I found the easiest way to do this was place the new stars in a bucket and drip my tank water into it using a peice of airline tubing with a knot tied in it. The shipper I got my blues from suggested 2 hours, but I've read about people taking 6.
If your star makes it through the first couple weeks, and it has enough food, you should be fine. They are really hardy animals and can live through some amazing conditions. I've even heard of people getting bits of linkias in semi dry live rock, only to have them recover and regrow missing parts. =)
