Sand Shifting Starfish question

[baldislife]

Last week I was at my LFS looking to purchase so snails to help clean my sand. The sales rep recommended a SSS as the best option to keep the sandbed clean. Of course I didn't research it and bought it home and put it in my tank. Now I research it and seems from what I have seen it will basically strip the sand of all the microfauna and make it dead again? Is this true? How long before it "kills" the sand bed in a 45g?

I was wondering if I could rotate it every few days between this tank and my sons EVO to prevent it from decimating the tanks or would that result in two dead tanks? TIA.

 

[brandon429]

They’re misinforming you. Reef sandbeds don’t have anything a reef requires, this is why bare bottom tanks thrive just fine and in many cases better than sandbedded ones. There isn’t usually enough feed and those stars die slowly over time. Even in systems with ample pods, theyre too slow to decimate anything. Lfs is simply rehashing made up stuff from 20 years ago just like they do with cycling advice. The star will likely just slowly starve in both systems and one day it’ll die in the sandbed and rot away and you’ll never know it. In no way at all does a sand sifting star decimate a sandbed, what’s in your sandbed is catched fish waste and tank detritus and the stars waste pellets add more waste to the bed. Pods come from the rocks, not the sandbed.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, they might get a handful of food from the sandbed, but they need to actually be fed too - otherwise they'll slowly starve. Also, switching it between the tanks likely wouldn't help:

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!

 

[baldislife]

Thank you both with so much info. I may have to donate it back to the LFS for its own good or give direct feeding it a shot. I certainly don't want it to starve.

 

[ZoaAddiction81]

I’ve had one for almost 2 years in my reef with no effects to the tank. The starfish feeds on spaghetti worms and bristle worms. Sometimes I’ll give him left over krill or the small algae mats for tangs.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The starfish feeds on spaghetti worms and bristle worms.

Out of genuine curiosity here, have you actually seen it eating these?

 

[ZoaAddiction81]

Yes next time I’ll take a picture in action..

 

[brandon429]

If I wanted to keep one I would use a food injector to occasionally spot feed it ground up pellets. Then they'd live fine but not actually do much for the system unless the keeper likes the diversity of stars in the system then its worth it. Just like we would take time to feed a fish