Chocolate Chip Starfish

The chocolate chip starfish is recognized by the dark brown to black, cone-shaped horns on its thick cream, beige or reddish body; adults reach 25–30 cm. It is hardier than other sea stars and readily accepts supplementary food. However, it is an opportunistic predator: it eats corals, anemones, giant clams, feather duster worms and sponges. For this reason it is not reef-safe and suits only fish-only aquariums with live rock. Specimens in the trade are wild-collected.

• 300 liters or more; a fish-only aquarium with live rock and a large sand area.
• Salinity 1.024–1.026 specific gravity, pH 8.1–8.4, temperature 24–27°C; salinity should be stable.
• Not reef-safe; it is not kept with corals, anemones, giant clams or other sessile invertebrates.
• It should be acclimated by the drip method for at least 2 hours and not exposed to air; copper-based medications are lethal.

Carnivorous. Pieces of mussel, shrimp, squid or mysis should be placed directly under its body 2–3 times a week; it wraps the morsel by pushing its stomach out. A hungry star turns to other invertebrates in the aquarium.

It is slow and leaves fish alone, but it eats sessile invertebrates in its path. It lives without problems with its own kind.

Good companions: tangs, damselfish, clownfish and other fish-only species; hermit crabs.

Avoid: corals, anemones, giant clams and feather duster worms; harlequin shrimp, and pufferfish and triggerfish that pick at it.