Chocolate Chip Starfish

Chocolate chip starfish (Protoreaster nodosus) is the cream-and-tan sea star studded with the blunt dark cones that give it its name. It comes from shallow Indo-Pacific sand flats and seagrass beds rather than from the reef itself, and it spends its time working slowly across open substrate.

Aquarium care

• Not reef safe. This species feeds on sessile invertebrates and will eat corals, clams, sponges and anemones given the chance. Keep it in a fish-only or dedicated sand-bed system.
• Acclimate slowly by drip. Sea stars react badly to sudden changes in salinity, temperature or pH.
• Feed it directly, placing chopped seafood or a sinking pellet under the central disc a few times a week rather than trusting it to find enough alone.
• Give it open sand and smooth surfaces, and keep salinity steady with no copper in the system.
• Lift it out of the water as little as possible, since trapped air in the water vascular system causes lasting damage.
• Some fish, including larger puffers and triggers, will pick at its arms.

A good display invertebrate for a fish-only marine tank with peaceful, non-nipping fish such as clownfish, damsels or gobies. Corals, tridacnid clams and anemones are not compatible.

Stock rotates. Local pickup at our Lethbridge store, alongside other saltwater fish and invertebrates.