SandSifting Starfish

[Alex's Nano Reef]

well I got pressured into buying one by my girlfriend. I was wondering will he be able to get down into crushed coral? I got the that thick grain sand. What’s his stressors? What behaviors indicate stress/him thriving?

 

[blaxsun]

I don't think the starfish has a choice at this point - it's literally sink or swim! If it starts losing its legs and dissolving it's a good indication that it's not doing well.

 

[mta_morrow]

You need a decent sized, well established tank to support one of these. You may need to spot feed if you have a smaller or non established tank.

 

[Bucs20fan]

If you have snails, and it cannot bury or find food to eat, it will prey on your snails.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

You need a decent sized, well established tank to support one of these. You may need to spot feed if you have a smaller or non established tank.

I don’t have a large tank but I am having problems keeping the sand clean. I got a well established population of copepods and coralline growing like crazy everywhere.

 

[Bucs20fan]

The feed off of left over food and detritus in the substrate mainly. If they dont have enough of that they will try slower inverts, then eventually waste away to nothing.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

What would I spot feed it?

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

The feed off of left over food and detritus in the substrate mainly. If they dont have enough of that they will try slower inverts, then eventually waste away to nothing.

Up until now I was feeding twice a day either PE Mysis or LFR nano reef frenzy frozen food

 

[Bucs20fan]

It can be notoriously difficult to spot feed as in its normal behavior you wont see it as it will be buried in the sand, but you could feed it just about anything, pieces of shrimp, clam, nori.

 

[mta_morrow]

I don’t have a large tank but I am having problems keeping the sand clean. I got a well established population of copepods and coralline growing like crazy everywhere.

For smaller tanks, siphoning is the best method to keep a clean sand bed.

once you get to a larger footprint with a lot of open space sand, and it’s established w microfauna, then perhaps a sand sifting goby.

starfish are difficult and hit or miss.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Well I’m gonna keep a little frozen food in the Diet to try and get him some food if I seen negative signs I’m going back to the store w him

 

[reefer_evo5]

I've had a sand sifting starfish for a year now it went from a 10g tank to now a 20g tank the substrate I have is the caribsea special grade one its always burries its self in the sand its always had all its legs never had issues w it eating snails or anything I feed sinking algea pallets from hikari called seaweed extreme to my clownfish sometimes and ive seen it eat those most of the time my starfish is under the substrate and only comes out at night it even moves its legs over my coral on the sanded when it feels like its to close to them

 

[blaxsun]

I've tried twice now with sand sifting starfish in my established system. Both times they did fine then wasted away.

@mta_morrow summed it up best: starfish are hit and miss.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

I've tried twice now with sand sifting starfish in my established system. Both times they did fine then wasted away.

@mta_morrow summed it up best: starfish are hit and miss.

Let’s pray for a Hit

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

With a small tank and crushed coral substrate, I'd be pretty concerned. With regards to what to feed it, here's my recommendation:

With sand sifting stars, most people recommend waiting until your tank is established before adding them - however, you might be able to target feed it with things like clam on half shell, oyster, snail or conch meat (a lot of places offer these frozen), a good quality omnivore food (like LRS Reef Frenzy) etc. It should swallow any of these foods whole, as long as the food isn’t too big for the star. They generally feed on detritus in our tanks, but target feeding might provide enough of the proper nutrition for them, and these are supposed to be some of the kinds of food they eat in the wild anyway. Plus, they are known for eating all of the detritus in our tanks and starving to death, so target feeding them larger food pieces relatively regularly might actually help it do better long term. No guarantees though.

If you decide to get it and try target feeding it, let us know how it turns out.

Mussel and whelk could potentially be fed as well, but with the mussel I've heard that clams may be more nutritious.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

With a small tank and crushed coral substrate, I'd be pretty concerned. With regards to what to feed it, here's my recommendation:

Im not to worried about the nutrition as im more worried about its ability to even get into the substrate.

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Well tomorrow I’m bringing the starfish back to the LFS. Gonna prolly trade it for a conch any recommendations on conchs I should get?

 

[mta_morrow]

Well tomorrow I’m bringing the starfish back to the LFS. Gonna prolly trade it for a conch any recommendations on conchs I should get?

Fighting conchs stay relatively smaller. I have never lost one.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Well tomorrow I’m bringing the starfish back to the LFS. Gonna prolly trade it for a conch any recommendations on conchs I should get?

Best thing you could do. Crushed coral is a no no for a starfish. Frankly keeping them at all except in LARGE systems are a no.

Crushed coral and sandsifters are a bit of a pain for the animal due to the coarseness of the media. May need to rethink your substrate choice.