Dissolved sand sifting sea star

[elfda]

Not sure what caused this, but I know sea stars sometimes just kinda *go*?
Was in with a halloween hermit, hawkfish, and an electric blue damsel.

It was still moving its feet, so I used tricaine and put it down. Poor thing.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sadly they do often starve in our tanks...

 

[wkscott]

Sorry for your loss. How long did you have it and it what size tank?

 

[bios]

Sorry..
Two possibles issues presence of nitrites or ammonia
Or it don't find food in the sand
Archaster is a very hard starfish

 

[elfda]

Sorry..
Two possibles issues presence of nitrites or ammonia
Or it don't find food in the sand
Archaster is a very hard starfish

Nitrites and ammonia were both 0; we usually have good luck with them, since my coworkers periodically overfeed everyone. :/

 

[elfda]

Sorry for your loss. How long did you have it and it what size tank?

That one... I think was the most recent arrival; less than one month. It was in a tank about 10g in dimensions, but part of a 110g system.
The rest of them, in different sections, seem ok.

 

[elfda]

Sadly they do often starve in our tanks...

Aside from everyone else's table scraps, what else do they like to eat?

 

[wkscott]

That one... I think was the most recent arrival; less than one month. It was in a tank about 10g in dimensions, but part of a 110g system.
The rest of them, in different sections, seem ok.

Unfortunately, the sand in a 10g tank will not supply enough food for the star, regardless of the total water volume. Mine cleaned out my 90g established tank in just a few months and then he started to dissolve.

 

[elfda]

Yikes! Poor dude...

 

[elfda]

Unfortunately, the sand in a 10g tank will not supply enough food for the star, regardless of the total water volume. Mine cleaned out my 90g established tank in just a few months and then he started to dissolve.

...my coworkers must feed even more heavily than I realized..! We've been keeping these guys in our tanks for years without issue.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Old thread but for future reefer generations: consider surgery. Cutting off all the legs and avoid center mouth if possible. If it’s just legs they’ll regrow if you put it back into a tank with proper food. Agreed the 10g sand wouldn’t have enough food to sustain it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Old thread but for future reefer generations: consider surgery. Cutting off all the legs and avoid center mouth if possible. If it’s just legs they’ll regrow if you put it back into a tank with proper food. Agreed the 10g sand wouldn’t have enough food to sustain it.

The OP pics show definite starvation and while they can reproduce with leg removal, if theyre starving, they simply will continue to fall apart rather than repair themselves

 

[SirenBethany]

The OP pics show definite starvation and while they can reproduce with leg removal, if theyre starving, they simply will continue to fall apart rather than repair themselves

Can they be fed supplementally by placing food in the sand bed?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Can they be fed supplementally by placing food in the sand bed?

You can try Hikari algae wafers as a supplement

 

[WheatToast]

@AydenLincoln
@livinlifeinBKK

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Can they be fed supplementally by placing food in the sand bed?

You can target feed them, but no one has gotten back to me yet on if it helps:

These starfish don’t eat algae in any meaningful quantities. They’re probably carnivorous, but may be detritivorous (see the quotes below). Personally, I’d try putting the star in an acclimation box with a dish of sand for it, and I’d try offering it a bunch of mollusks for it to eat (clams, mussels, oysters, and small but meat-eating snails like Nassarius snails would be my suggestions at this point), and see if it shows interest in eating any of them. If it does, then I’d try offering it more of that item in various sizes and see if it has a preferred food size.

I'd try something like clam, oyster, etc. and/or snail meat (you can find various frozen/live marine snails to try online, including conch meat, periwinkle snails, babylonian snails, etc.)

The quote below is specifically geared toward Astropecten spp. (predatory) sand sifting stars, but there is another genus of sand sifting stars called Archaster that is thought (importantly the diet was inferred, not studied in the research that this diet was pulled from) to be detritivorous (specifically, they are thought to be microphagous detritivores). I have heard but cannot confirm that Archaster spp. misidentified as Astropecten spp. may be more common in the hobby than actual Astropecten spp. are.

So, with this in mind:
- If your star is detritivorous (which may be a very big if), then you would likely want smaller foods than the suggested below (which is designed for predatory sand sifters). In this case, I'd suggest trying to mix something like TDO Chroma Boost into the sand for your stars to find.
- If your star is predatory (which may to our limited knowledge be possible at this point even if it is an Archaster sp.), then the below advice (and my advice above) is more likely to be useful.
- If your star is actually primarily a biofilm eater like Linckia spp. Protoreaster nodosus, etc. (which may also to our limited knowledge be possible for an Archaster sp.), then it's likely to die regardless of what you do or don't feed it at this point.

I’ve heard they climb the glass when they’re looking for food and can’t find any in the sand bed.

Generally, people recommend large tanks and waiting until your tank is established before trying these (or pretty much any) sea stars, and the star survives on detritus in the tank. Unfortunately, even in a lot of these tanks, after they finish clearing the detritus from the sand, they typically starve.

My current advice to avoid the star staving - which may or may not help, I genuinely don't know at this point (it could take someone months to years of testing it to find out for certain, as sea stars can last months without food):
Target feed the star things like clam on half shell, oyster, mussel, scallop, etc. (bivalves); snail, whelk, conch, etc. (sea snail gastropods); and a good quality omnivore food (like LRS Reef Frenzy or Fertility Frenzy). These are - according to the best sources of information I can find - the sorts of foods sand sifting stars consume in the wild, and the star should swallow these foods whole if they aren't too big - you might need to experiment a bit with the size of the pieces offered to get it sized just right, but generally I'd say err on the smaller side.

If you decide to give it a shot, let me know how it goes, and keep me updated on the long term survival of the star!

 

[AydenLincoln]

@AydenLincoln
@livinlifeinBKK

This post is 7 years old lol! But I feel like we need more info we aren’t going to get from the OP since they aren’t in the forum anymore so there’s no point to answer this particular person. But usually for these stars I feel the cause is diet/lack of proper nutrition.

 

[WheatToast]

This post is 7 years old lol! But I feel like we need more info we aren’t going to get from the OP since they aren’t in the forum anymore so there’s no point to answer this particular person. But usually for these stars I feel the cause is diet/lack of proper nutrition.

Oh crud! I did not realize! Sorry!

 

[AydenLincoln]

Oh crud! I did not realize! Sorry!

No worries lots of people comment on old posts not realizing how old they are lol.