Neptune Aquatics

How should I ship tiny starfish?

HiFidelity

HiFidelity

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Hi folks,

Over on Nano-Reef I stumbled on a thread calling out for micro brittle stars and since my sump & fuge are absolutely full of these little guys I thought I might help, charging them a whopping $10 shipped haha.

I've never shipped a starfish before and I figured I'd ship them with a ball of chaeto in some water, this is where I stopped because I'm not sure what type of container to use. I know that too much exposure to air kills starfish so chaeto in a ziploc bag is out of the question?

The other issue is the size of the package, due to the low price my only option is small flat rate box which is less than 2 inches in thickness thus ruling out water bottles.

Anyone with more experience please chime in :)
 
You could try bagging the chaeto underwater to limit the amount of air in the bag and then you can double bag it. I've had micro brittle stars overrun my tank before. Super hardly. Was the only thing remained when the rest of the tank crashed.
 
I wouldn't use ziplocks. You could try and find a cigar tube/paintball tube/plastic test tube.

Or go to an lfs and see if they'll wire band some double bags.
 
These guys are good for cleaning up your sand and eatting excess food?

I have a bare bottom (no sand) and my fish are pigs (no excess food).

I used to have these guys before but they would steal food from coral and the water column...I'm leaning toward avoiding them, unless I can find a benefit for my setup...
 
they're so tiny I can't imagine them stealing anything large enough for a fish to consume, the ones I have are all roughly 1/4" or smaller, a few are approaching 1/2" from tip to tip but not many that large. They reign supreme in my refugiums, I never see them in DT perhaps my wrasse likes to eat them.... hhhmmmm I never thought of this before but for fun I should try hand feeding them to the wrasse :D
 
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