Comaster schlegelii

(Carpenter, 1884)

Schlegel's Feather Star, Black & Gold Feather Star

Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean

Natural Environment: Inhabits coral reef areas rich in corals, gorgonians and coral rubble.

General Husbandry: Rarely seen in the aquarium trade.

These are suspension feeders that uncoil/coil their arms to gather only extremely fine planktonic food. Unfortunately, occasionally shows up in the trade and even with the best attention to its needs, often quickly dies of starvation!

Requires a constant gentle direct flow of water, which should numerous times daily contain very fine preserved commercial phytoplankton and zooplankton products, and live baby brine shrimp.

Usually, digests itself and disintegrates.

Mainly active at night, unless starving!

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Echinodermata

Class: Crinoidea

Order: Comatulida

Family: Comatulidae

Genus: Comaster

FYI: Was previously identified as Comanthina schlegelii

Color depends upon areas of collection.

Sensitive to salinity changes.

Photos show healthy specimen in the wild, somewhat healthy specimen in local shop aquarium, somewhat poor specimen clinging to rock in local shop aquarium, and finally same specimen beginning to disintegrate. All within a two week period in the shop aquarium!

Crinoids are better left in the ocean!

Experience Level: Expert

Diet: Omnivore/Suspension feeder

Aquarium Environment: Reef or fish-only aquarium

Coral Safe: Yes

Fish Safe: Yes

Invertebrate Safe: Yes

Acclimation Time: Sensitive to specific gravity/salinity changes, therefore be sure to adjust the bag's water to that of the aquarium in which it will be placed by slowly adding small amounts of aquarium water to the bag every few minutes. In most cases, this process should take at least 15 minutes.

Aquarium Hardiness: Extremely Poor!

Temperature Range: 72 - 83°F (22 - 28°C)

Minimum Tank Size: 100 gallons

Specific Gravity: 1.023 - 1.025

pH: 8.0 - 8.4